Structured Dialogue

Don’t be put off by its abstract title: this is the core of European Youth Week.

Structured dialogue is the ongoing cycle of discourse between EU policy-makers and young people from across Europe.

It’s a platform where young people, youth organisations, EU presidencies, ministries, the European Youth Forum, national youth councils and the Youth in Action national agencies all get together to discuss the priorities and implementation of EU youth policy.

In short, it’s a crucial means for youth representatives to influence policy and the backbone of EU youth strategy.

During the EYW flagship programme in Brussels from 15-21 May, the structured dialogue will take the form of six workshops, all aiming to get input from 140 young people and national officials on the future conduct and development of the Structured dialogue.

But it goes further than that. The wider process enables continuous reflective monitoring of Europe’s entire course of action on youth issues. Without it, there would be no direct exchange of ideas between young Europeans and EU policy-makers; no youth handle on the future of youth policy, and no means of steering a course.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Structured dialogue operates in 18-month cycles, each one spanning three six-month presidencies, with the three countries involved choosing an overall agenda and each one training its sights on a more specific focus.

Over the past year-and-a-half, the wider theme was ‘youth unemployment’, as chosen by the trio presidency of Spain, Belgium and Hungary. The individual priorities those countries set were ‘social inclusion’, ‘youth work’ and ‘active citizenship’, respectively.

Each 18-month cycle is punctuated by three EU youth conferences, with the last taking place in Budapest The conclusions of the dialogue at that conference will form part of a Council Resolution on the Structured Dialogue, to be adopted by all EU member states in the May Council of Youth Ministers – a great example of how dialogue leads to practical results and better policies for young people.

Before each youth conference, national committees called National Working Groups perform consultations in their individual countries based on technicalities, visibility – to ensure transparency – composition, structured dialogue, transmission of outcomes and development.

The whole process is overseen by a European Steering Committee, composed of the trio presidency countries’ youth affairs ministries, national agencies, the European Commission and the European Youth Forum, which is a network of national youth councils and NGOs that brings together tens of millions of people from all over Europe.

EUROPEAN YOUTH WEEK 2011

EYW 2011 comes at the end of the Spain-Belgium-Hungary trio presidency, providing an opportunity to assess the cycle and make proposals for future directions.

The young people participating in the structured dialogue at EYW are nominated from National Working Groups and so already have experience of the consultation and assessment process.

The results of the week’s discussions in Brussels will be made into recommendations before reaching plenary sessions for consideration by politicians.

And so it is that structured dialogue ensures the voices of European youth are heard – and listened to.

Click here to find out more about the programme in Brussels.

THE NEXT CYCLE

The incoming trio presidency of Poland, Denmark and Cyprus will set its core theme for the next 18-month cycle as ‘youth participation’, with a Polish focus on ‘youth and the world’, a Danish agenda of ‘creativity and innovation’, and Cyprus choosing ‘participation and social inclusion’.