‘Structured Dialogue’: initially, it’s all to easy to balk at the very mention of these two words and recoil in sheer confusion or simply gawp at them quizzically as if you had just been asked to recite pi to the 30th digit.

But upon further analysis, the literal meaning, dialogue that is structured – or even conversation – makes more sense.

Bizarre title aside, Structured Dialogue is something that is set to change the world of politics for the better.

BREAKING IT DOWN

The breakdown of SD is as follows:

The European Union (EU) has set a youth strategy, and Structured Dialogue (SD) is a big part of it. The SD helps the EU to look back on, put into action and follow up on the EU’s co-operation in the youth field.

Structured Dialogue: multiple branches

Since it involves all 27 EU Member States (and a few more countries besides), the SD is done in 18-month blocks. These blocks have three countries take charge per ‘term’: these countries are then known as the ‘presidents’ for that particular ‘term’.

Each ‘presidency’ is then given a subject area to concentrate on, known as a ‘thematic priority’. This is then divided into three key areas. Once each ‘president’ has been given an area, that country then invites its youth to come and discuss it and decide how they would like for it to be implemented.

Each president country has a set time to do this (6 months) with whomever is last wrapping up the process for that 18-month period, known as a ‘work cycle’.

The president country has a group of people know as a ‘National Working Group’ (NWGs) to pick the young people to get involved in the discussions.

The EU also has a group to communicate with the NWGs and gather the responses. This group is known as the European Steering Committee, made up of loads of representatives from several other groups – including one from the Youth In Action Programme.

THE WHEELS OF PROGRESS

So let’s use a car as a metaphor: the EU is the manufacturer, each Member State is a constructor and the youth is the customer buying this car.

The EU wants to build this car, bit by bit, taking the customers’ opinions into account.

The EU starts with the front of the car and says to three of the constructors: “One of you design a bonnet, the other design the front wheels and another the front doors.”

Each constructor then goes to their country and asks the customers what they’d like to see in a bonnet/front wheel/front door design.

Six months later, they return to the manufacturers with their received suggestions and then, based on a Structured Dialogue, make changes to the car’s design.

This creates a vehicle of change for the customer, built, in part, by the customer.

So for the first cycle, it was the trio-presidential collective of Spain-Belgium-Hungary, discussing Youth Employment.

During the next work cycle, it is the turn of Poland-Denmark-Cyprus, set to discuss ‘youth participation’. Poland will focus on ‘youth and the world’, Denmark on ‘creativity and innovation’ with Cyprus focussed on ‘participation and social inclusion’.

With these thought-provoking topics up for debate, we in the UK wait with anticipation to see who we will share our presidency with, and what topics we choose…

At least 85% of Icelandic young people would be willing to work in another European country, and more than two in five would move abroad for the long term.

Iceland’s youth are therefore the most ready in Europe to up sticks and settle elsewhere, according to the results of a new Eurobarometer survey announced during European Youth Week 2011.

After Iceland, the countries whose young people most want to work abroad are Sweden, Bulgaria, Romania and Finland.

Interestingly, with Iceland at the head of the table, it is another official EU candidate country, in the opposite corner of Europe, which brings up the rear: Turkey. Only 11% of young Turks declared a desire to work abroad in the short-term, and 16% long-term.

APPETITE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

Young Icelanders found themselves near the top of the table relating to higher education, too – second only to Germany: 90% of Icelandic 15-30 year olds see higher education as an attractive option, the survey found.

Also noteworthy is the fact that 21% of young Icelanders say they have already stayed abroad for education or training purposes – the figure is the fifth highest in Europe.

According to Halldór S. Gudmundsson, associate professor of social sciences at the University of Iceland and an experienced researcher on Icelandic unemployment, a number of reasons may lie behind Icelandic youngsters’ willingness to move abroad.

“Iceland is a very international country and that is nothing new,” explains Halldór.

“We are an island; we travel a lot and assume very young that we will probably move residence at some point.”

Around 90% of Icelandic young people want to move abroad for work; over 40% want to move for the long term.

The debate that has developed about youth unemployment may also affect the desire to search for new surroundings, adds Halldór: a very high proportion of those willing to move abroad long-term point specifically to that.

“What has characterised young unemployed people is that the group has had very few opportunities for quite some time,” adds Halldór.

“There is no light at the end of the tunnel yet after the collapse of the financial system. But this may also indicate desire for adventure, exploring new things and the wish for something better and new.”

Conducted by the European Commission’s public opinion surveyor, Eurobarometer, the survey contacted 812 Icelanders by phone (the most common number of respondents in Member States was 1,000).

All in all, 30,312 interviews were conducted in all 27 member states, along with Iceland, Croatia, Norway and Turkey. The survey was conducted from 26-30 January 2011 and its results are in tune with the themes of European Youth Week, which sought to address youth issues including employment, higher education, informal learning, the benefits of volunteering, and social and geographical mobility.

Certainly on the last topic, Icelandic youths have shown they are more than ready to embrace European opportunities.

“We all have some kind of handicap which we often try to hide from others; we still have the right to be perceived as equal and unique human beings – so do people with mental handicaps.”

When Lenka Vochocová co-founded the Czech NGO ‘Inventura’ in 2005, it was a gathering of a few like-minded volunteers in Prague, working with a small handful of mentally handicapped clients.

Today, Inventura helps over 20 clients paint, write stories, take photographs, make short films and even put on plays in its own theatre. It’s a unique artistic outlet for the mentally handicapped youngsters – and for its volunteers.

Images created by mentally handicapped people at Inventura

Just six years after its birth, it is a well-known well of inspiration, running its workshops at the International Centre for Contemporary Art in the Czech capital.

But without support and funding from European Commission programmes like the ‘Youth in Action‘ scheme, organisations like Inventura might never even have got started.

Social inclusion is something on which Youth in Action programmes – and the European Union in general – put great emphasis, and that generates international networks.

Inventura is now preparing to take part in an EU-wide conference in November 2011, where they and other similar NGOs will be able to share knowledge, experience and new ways to cooperate.

It‘s been an emotional journey, but Lenka remains positive.

“As a university student I was helping in one protected living house for mentally handicapped,” she says.

“I found out that it was really interesting to talk with people who lived there and they sometimes had some great artistic ideas which they couldn’t realise because they didn’t have the chance to do so.”

Photos, painting, writing, making... - people at Inventura can try it all

Lenka says that Inventura prefers the term ‘mental handicap’ over ‘mentally disabled’, because it better describes the situation of Inventura’s clients: these people, she says, just have some sort of handicaps which may make it more difficult for them to handle with all the obstacles in our world.

Any young people who are interested in work with mentally handicapped artists are encoutaged to contact Inventura and can join their effort – and since this is the European Year of Volunteering, there has never been a better time.

“We don’t have the approach, ‘let just the poor young people with mental handicap do something’ – we want to make things which will be somehow enriching or inspiring for all of us,” adds Lenka.

“It is not always as easy as it sounds but I love my work in Inventura and I really think we do something that can change people’s opinion on people with mental handicaps.”

“It’s a pleasant adventure to work with new themes and people who are not shy in stating and arguing their opinions; it’s an intellectual challenge – you have to listen to different opinions and lead groups to constructive solutions: it’s a source of youth,” says Marius Ulozas. He and Nerijus Miginis, both of them from the Lithuanian Youth Council (LiJOT), acted as facilitators during European Youth Week (EYW) in Brussels.

Nerijus never planned to work in international events – and he says it was only thanks to a friend’s suggestion that he got involved.

But seven years later, Nerijus is still enjoying his work and he doesn’t look like stopping anytime soon: after taking a part in EYW, he plans to embark on several training projects back in Lithuania before making a return to Brussels.

Marius and Nerijus at European Youth Week in Brussels

Although – or perhaps because – EYW is a pan-European event, it’s hard to count the people who made it such a success.

Marius and Nerijus both agree that the work of specific groups (facilitators, participants and journalists) was done very well, without any pretensions.

“I value the work of journalists really highly,” says Marius.

“The more people who are informed about European events, the faster and more effective the Structured Dialogue will be. A majority of people often appear to be skeptical about solutions, but that is due to the lack of information.

“It’s really pleasing that these journalists are young and able to put a youthful outlook on events when bringing this news to their countries.”

RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

One reason why EYW is so useful and successful, says Marius, is because it helps people and countries to learn from each other.

“When there’s a strong will and motivation to make this event as good as possible, results satisfy and inspire more optimistic ideas,” he adds.

Everybody would agree that EYW’s success would not have been possible without every person involved, no matter whether s/he worked as a facilitator, a participant or a journalist. All of those people gathered here in Brussels to unite their forces and move toward a brighter future for young people and wider opportunities.

“This type of event will certainly be needed for Lithuania, who will be taking up the EU Presidency 2013,” concludes Nerijus.

“This union of young people and politicians is very effective.”

Like Nerijus and Marius, we look forward to building upon the work of previous presidencies.

Disabled people, rightly or wrongly, are often considered to be reliant on aid because of their neurological difficulties – but this perception can easily lead to disregard for their actual skills, experience and knowledge, says Markus Vähälä.

Markus works in Lyhty, a centre caring for the disabled in a creative learning environment.

Music rehearsal / Photo credit: Pekka Elomaa

As with many of the European Voluntary Service projects nominated for prizes in the ’Inclusive Society’ category at a European Youth Week awards ceremony in Antwerp, volunteers at Lyhty often participate in the projects by doing various activities with the disabled.

Their main concern is that disabled young people are generally seen as passive and are not given enough opportunity to challenge themselves.

Markus tells a different story: in the Lyhty community, there are actually a lot of disabled participants who are politically active and belong to different kinds of NGOs.

The empowerment which comes through inspiring a sense of competence and confidence has created new innovative possibilities to work in different ways. This way of working and the knowledge gained are things which could be used in other NGOs as well and not only in the disabled field.

‘FREAK CIRCUS’: MAKING A POINT

Lyhty’s ‘Freak Circus’ project was also nominated in Antwerp. Its content and ways of working differ greatly from the norm.

Croatian volunteer Zrinko Vranješ became part of the group because there was a real need for a guitarist and was quickly considered as equal among all the participants.

Zrinko at the awards ceremony in Antwerp / Photo credit: Noora Kauppila

His role as a volunteer did not differentiate him from others and he got to know the group especially well over time, rehearsing a full-scale concert together.

The task was a challenging for everyone involved, and the feeling of being able to do it together themselves gave everybody the chance to concentrate on practical work and not the identities of the ‘do-ers’.

It was also very refreshing and rewarding to see how the disabled were presented in the project. They were already speaking up to invent the title of the show and criticised how the disabled are so often presented just as ‘cute’ and ‘happy’.

Zrinko tells how the songs for the Freak Circus were chosen from different varieties ranging from sexy and playful disco tunes to traditional Finnish songs.

“The costumes were also freaky,” he says smiling.

The success of the project and the attention it has received clearly – a nomination for a European prize, no less – shows the need for a different approach in the field of working with the disabled.

MORE PARTICIPATION IN VOLUNTARY WORK

“I would like to point out how important it is in the field of voluntary work to bring out disabled peoples’ skills and the importance of their experience,” says Markus.

“They should also function as active learners, experts and coaches in voluntary projects.”

Disabled people should be seen as sources of strength and resources, rather than limitations in voluntary projects – although, of course, there is also need of expert aid, and this should be included in project budgets.

Different practices and approaches can create innovations and definitely a very different perception of the world, such as those presented in the ‘Freak Circus’: the disabled certainly need more room to ‘speak up and join in!’

This holds true for many young people in Croatia, as the country faces a potential brain drain. With large numbers of the skilled workforce considering emmigrating for work, the country’s problems are similar to those in the European Union. Even youngsters with good qualifications are having a hard time getting a job.

Croatian employers don’t recognise volunteering as work experience. That’s why most young Croatians don’t see volunteering as a viable option; to get to know other cultures, countries, nations and languages.

“Youngsters don’t realise they have absolutely nothing to lose,” says Saša Bjelanović from the Danube Youth organisation.

“People have settled in countries where they volunteered. Croatia’s problem is that the Ministry of Education doesn’t recognise informal education.”

A LIFE ABROAD

Zrinko Vranješ from Split, Croatia exemplifies this phenomenon. Three years ago, he was studying history and Greek in Zagreb, but he saw potential obstacles in finding a decent job after graduation.

Music was always his hobby, and his passion for Finnish heavy metal led him to cold Finland in 2008.

Croatian EVS volunteer Zrinko Vranješ now lives in Helsinki, Finland

Thanks to the European Voluntary Service, he helped people with growth disabilities and Down’s syndrome for one year. Three years later, Zrinko is still in Helsinki, working for the same organisation in Lyghty.  He obtained a work permit, and Finland became his new home.

“Finland gives you greater possibilities,” Zrinko says.

“All options for youngsters are open: even if you have poor education, the state helps you to get it. Up to the college degree, education in Finland is free of charge, and you even get a €500 per month student aid, no matter whether you’re a foreigner or Finnish.”

Zrinko is taking every opportunity he can, and is about to complete his Bachelor degree in health care.

JOIN IN, GET A MOVE ON

As Mr Barroso says, we are lucky enough these days to have the internet. The EYW 2011 slogan is ‘Join in!’  – and youngsters in Croatia can certainly join in, with different EU programmes like Youth in Action and the UK National Agency programmes for Leonardo, Grundtvig and Transversal just waiting to be used.

A lot of possibilities await – so join in, and get a move on!

One term has been hovering over the European Youth Week (EYW) 2011: ‘Structured Dialogue’. But what exactly does it mean – and how is it implemented in Luxembourg?

Cátia Goncalves of the Conférence Générale de la Jeunesse Luxembourgeoise (CGJL) took part in EYW 2011. Structured Dialogue, she says, is highly innovative.

“Before the Structured Dialogue, neither young people themselves, nor youth organisations got acknowledged in EU politics,” she says.

“Of course, the concept is still under construction, but I am very positive about it becoming a lobby platform for youth interests. I also think that if young people become more involved in EU politics it will have an impact on national politics as well. Politicians in the European countries will be challenged to improve youth politics!“

So, Structured Dialogue is basically a way of involving young people in European politics. It is meant to promote a bottom-up approach to politics, in contrast to a top-down procedure, which consists in EU politicians implementing their ideas. Through the concept of Structured Dialogue, youth across Europe get to have their say in youth politics.

But it’s not just a theoretical concept.

THE BACKGROUND

Every cycle of three presidencies of the Council of the European Union has a general subject. EYW 2011 marked the culmination of the last trio Presidency (Spain, Belgium, Hungary), which focused on employment issues.

Building a network of youth dialogue

For every 18-month cycle of presidencies, three youth conferences with a theme matching the general subject of the presidency are organised. Each country has the chance to present the outcomes of a previous consultation phase during those conferences.

During the consultation phase, a working document is prepared by National Working Groups (NWGs) in each country; the documents of all participating countries are then compiled and used as a basis for the youth conference.

Every national representation has a different way of gathering information for that document. In Luxembourg, the NWG relied on a combination of questionaries and assemblies, whereas young people themselves, as well as experts including representatives of youth organisations, were included and given the chance to have their say. The Luxembourgish Youth Parliament played a central role in the process of gathering information and spreading the word.

MOVING THINGS FORWARD

On May 19, the European Council issued a resolution on how find new effective ways to develop youth participation in EU politics. This resolution anticipates the next cycle of presidencies (Poland, Denmark and Cyprus), whose general theme will be ‘youth participation’.

Obviously, young people should be given more attention. Since young generations are the future of Europe, they should be far more involved in EU politics than is the case right now.

If Structured Dialogue has been the theme of EYW, then ‘Hey you! Join in! Speak up!’ have been the watchwords – both in theory, and in practice.

Musa Akgül and Aygen Bekte are Turkish facilitators of the Structured Dialogue workshops at European Youth Week in Brussels.

Here, they talk about that dialogue with young people – and the improvements that need to be made, in Turkey and across the European Union.

Can you tell us about your position? What do you think about this week’s discussions on the Structured Dialogue?

Musa: I am working as a facilitator in this EU summit and I am also in the trainer’s pool of the EU Commission. I usually take part in the workshops about the recognition of formal and non-formal gains of conferences about the structured dialogue.

Musa (in red) gets down to work at European Youth Week in Brussels

First of all, let me explain what the Structured Dialogue is about: policy-makers, young people and youth workers are brought together to make decisions for young people.

Conferences about the Structured Dialogue are very important – it’s a process that each country should focus on. I attended the conferences held by Spain, Belgium and Hungary. All three conferences in Spain, Hungary and Belgium were successful: concrete measures were taken.

Aygen: Like Musa, I’m a youth work trainer from Turkey. I’ve been involved in several training activities in various different countries. At European Youth Week, the conferences in Spain, Hungary and Belgium are discussed and assessed. For example, in one session, we discussed which kind of recommendations should be made in order to make conferences about the Structured Dialogue more successful. Participants came here from EU Member States and candidate states – but unfortunately there’s only one journalist from Turkey and, of course, we need to focus more on that.

As young people yourself, what do you think about being young in Turkey?

Musa: Unfortunately, since the 1980s, young people have largely been seen as a problem in Turkey. They have been prevented from participating in social life both by their parents and by the government.

Musa leads a workshop on technicalities of the Structured Dialogue

Therefore, participation should be encouraged, because when other people make decisions for young people, it is not a solution.

Unfortunately, the discussion in Turkey revolves around a group of people who call themselves ‘young’ and a few NGOs. In Turkey, there is not even a youth council. I wish that there were continuous participation from Turkey and we could create the same environment for Structured Dialogue here.

The Structured Dialogue is seriously needed at home. We are in the early phases in Turkey so it’s very important that young people from Turkey come here to Brussels. But unfortunately, either because countries sometimes don’t invite Turkey, or because Turkish authorities do not respond to the invitation, participation is not always very good.

What about the participation of young people? Are they interested in the process?

Musa: No, they are not. They’re not aware of what is going on or what the Structured Dialogue is. This is a wider problem in the EU as a whole because you need to deal with different countries, different demands and different expectations.

After making it more visible, the Structured Dialogue should become a state policy, both in EU member states and in candidate states. It should not be seen as ‘a series of events sponsored by EU’. We need to inform more people about the Structured Dialogue because it aims to embrace all young people – no matter what their education or income level is.

But they don’t know about it. Each country should work on it individually and collectively.

Aygen: I think that both mainstream media and social media can be useful in promoting the work that is being done. Social networks are heavily used by young people and they are the perfect way to promote an idea, or a project. With social media, young people can make their voice heard – and yes, to policy-makers as well!

I think it is really reasonable and positive that they have involved young journalists from different European countries this time, but they should reach out more to youth workers, who could implement what they have seen here in their home countries.

What can be changed?

Musa: Of course it is always possible to do something better. For example, this process can be extended to include neighbouring countries of the EU Member States and candidate states – because no matter which country they come from, the stories of young people are of extreme importance in creating a better environment for them.

Aygen: I’d like to talk about positive consequences rather than making suggestions. I think that participation is actually quite good at the moment. There are people from all over Europe – and, for the first time, these conferences have been organised by three countries.

Before, countries used to organise individual conferences. Now, three countries can work on a common subject and that gives us more time to work.

We have 18 months to work on the same subject – and that’s great.

Marc David Niessen was a representative of the Youth Council of the German-speaking community of Belgium in the Structured Dialogue – both on a national level, in east Belgium, and then internationally, in Brussels.

During European Youth Week in Brussels, Marc gave an inside angle on the process and its implications – and explained why it is vital for young people all over Europe.

THE BEGINNING

“I think it all started around the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009,” says Marc, explaining how the Trio Presidency of Spain, Belgium and Hungary wanted to start a dialogue with the European Youth.

“At first, there was no European Steering Committee (ESC); there was just the trio, who sat down together with the European Commission.

“A form of structured dialogue existed before the actual current one, but it wasn’t really well organised and it didn’t produce any usable results.”

That’s why, Marc says, the European Presidency for 2010-11 wanted to try something new.

“They discovered pretty fast that they had to work with the different youth councils and the youth representations on local and national level if they wanted to achieve good and credible results.”

And so, just like that, Marc David Niessen became involved.

THE MAIN THREAD

“At first we were more observers than anything – but at certain points they would ask our opinion,” he says.

During that time, before their actual presidency even started, the trio agreed to make the youth employment their main thread and main concern.

“Every country had its own special theme but it all revolved around youth employment.”

After they identified their main priorities, the real work could start. The ‘new’ Structured Dialogue consists of consultations with young people at local and national level, which are summarised at bi-annual European Youth Conferences.

Marc David Niessen at European Youth Week in Brussels

“It was the ESC’s responsibility to find new questions to be asked during national consultations. The first challenge was to find the main problems; the second was to find solutions, and the third was to translate these solutions into actual recommendations to the European Commission and the different Member States.”

The ESC is composed of National Youth Councils, National Agencies of the Youth in Action programme and representatives from the Trio Presidency countries’ Ministries for Youth Affairs, as well as representatives of the European Commission.

The European Youth Forum assures an independent presidency of the ESC.

“The president at the moment is Peter Matjasic,” Marc continues. The ESC coordinates the whole process, works on the questions, collects the answers and looks after the twelve facilitators of the Structured Dialogue.

“The Steering Committee can’t really do the consultations themselves; they need help at local and national level. That’s where the National working groups come in.”

Different Member States have different arrangements. Because of the three language communities, Belgium has three different national working groups.

OPEN DISCUSSIONS AND ACTIVE EXCHANGE

In the German-speaking community, the National Agency assuring the dialogue was the Youth Council.

“We brought representatives from the different youth organisations and youth councils together with people from the civil society, as well as people from the government,” says Marc.

“We didn’t just ask young people like in most countries, but we invited people from the job centre, youth workers and politicians.”

This produced genuinely open discussions and an active exchange of ideas and opinions.

“As soon as we got results, we sent them to the participants of the discussion so that they could prepare themselves for the next round.”

RESULTS ON A EUROPEAN LEVEL

“We had the option to discuss the significance of the Structured Dialogue,” Marc explains.

“The results are as good as I hoped that they would be. A lot of important things have been said and have been summarised in an official document.

“We agreed, for example, that the timing for the Structured Dialogue is pretty important, because you need a certain amount of time to prepare and to do it. But we only make recommendations; we can’t make decisions.”

But the consultations didn’t only concern practices on a European level; they were also often directed at other bodies, such as National agencies, or the ESC.

INFLUENCE IN THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

The results are the basis for the next round of questions – but they are also official recommendations with an official resonance.

On a European level, the results of the Structured Dialogue will be taken pretty seriously by the Trio Presidency – and by the European Commission.

“All our conclusions are put in a document which will go to the European Commission and also to the Council of the European Union,” says Marc.

“They become part of the official resolution of the Council, on 19 May – which means we reach the highest possible level in the EU.”

The European Youth Week and the European Year of Volunteering 2011 have provided the platform to run hundreds of activities all around Europe. In Spain, the National Agency and REVE, a Spanish network of former European Voluntary Service volunteers, organised the seminar ‘Iberian pull to the European Year of Volunteering’ with the collaboration of the Portuguese National Agency.

TIME FOR CELEBRATION

And there’s another important reason for both countries to run such a project: this year marks the 25th anniversary of their joining the European Union, then known as the European Economic Community.

The event took place on the international border, between Galicia in north-western Spain and the north of Portugal, from 15-19 May.

Spanish and Portuguese participants of the seminar

As organisers explained, this ‘euroregion’, split into two countries, has an important period of history in common, as both modern countries were once part of the same kingdom. However, it is at the same time one of the most ancient European borders.

And so, the location was an essential element in the exchange.

The River Miño, which naturally separates both countries, has also been a tool and channel of communication at the same time. Participants of the seminar crossed from the Spanish to the Portuguese side various times throughout, as activities were being run in the streets of the entire cross-border area.

VOLUNTEERING: AN OPPORTUNITY

The exchange’s aim was to look for good practices in volunteering. It was also an opportunity to promote the idea of becoming a volunteer, which can be done in completely different fields and different ways.

Portuguese and Spanish participants were able to reflect on and exchange experiences about volunteering, and described the overall event as a very positive experience.

The organisers, too, were very satisfied with the end results – as well as the way the collaboration was run.

The highlight of the collaboration, though, was the discovery of the volunteer experiences, since the participants came from different fields and diverse, interesting backgrounds.

As for the future, members from REVE hope there will be “a second edition next year”.

The Spanish National Agency has also organised the hosting of a delegation of 16 Chinese people in the frame of the EU-China Year of Youth, as well as other activities.