Youth Summit: Your Europe, Your Future

Youth Summit (3’37’’)

Youth Summit (5’52’’)

The first ever EU Youth Summit, organised by the European Commission in cooperation with the European Parliament and the European Youth Forum,  is an opportunity for the young generation to express its aspirations and to contribute actively to shape the future of Europe. The aim of this summit is to produce concrete youth input for the ongoing debate on the future of Europe in view of the European elections in spring 2009.

More than 200 young delegates from all 27 EU Member States will attend the Summit: six youth per EU country (appointed by the national debates and the national Youth Councils), plus representatives from International non-governmental Youth organisations.

In preparation for the Youth Summit, a debate and consultation process was launched in early January. In a preparatory meeting sixty representatives from National Youth Councils and international non-governmental youth organisations worked on identifying the themes to be discussed in Rome and produced a discussion document. This work has continued with national  debates and consultations by International non-governmental Youth organisation all over the Europe. The results of the national discussions and preparatory meeting will be presented in Rome.

At the Youth Summit, the young delegates will finalise the input for the Rome Youth Declaration which will include the following sub-themes tackled in the working groups:

• the future of the EU Treaty;
• the EU's social and economic model;
• sustainable development;
• the EU's role in a globalised world;
• democracy and civil society;
• youth and education.

On Sunday 25 March, the young delegates will discuss the conclusions of the workshops. They  will adopt the "Rome Youth Declaration [78 KB] " containing their messages on the future of the European Union, which will be conveyed to EU leaders gathering on the same weekend in Berlin.

To complement the Summit, there will also be the chance to party and take part in the other celebrations in Rome.

Programme of the Youth Summit

March 23

• Presentation of the results from the national debates and consultations by the International non-governmental Youth organisations.

March 24

• Official opening in the presence of, among others, Mr Romano Prodi, Prime Minister of Italy, Mr Alejo Vidal-Quadras, Vice-President of the European Parliament, Ms Margot Wallström, Vice-President of the European Commission, and Mr Jàn Figel', European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth
• Workshops on the six themes.

March 25

• Plenary debate and adoption of the Rome Youth Declaration and messages
• Handover of the Rome Youth Declaration to the European Institutions
• Panel debate with Ms Margot Wallström, Vice-President of the European Commission, and Mr Jàn Figel', European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth and Mr Alejo Vidal-Quadras, Vice-President of the European Parliament. Moderator: Mr Pat Cox, President of the European Movement.

Download the programme [2 MB] .

Preparation phase of the Youth Summit

Preparatory meeting

The preparatory meeting was held in Brussels on 18-20 January 2007.

Read the conclusions of this preparatory meeting.

National debates

The preparatory work continued with European, national, regional and local debates in all Member States The debates were organized by National Youth Councils in cooperation with the European Commission, European Parliament and National Agencies.

Discussion paper for national debates [50 KB]

Guiding questions for the national debates

Guiding notes for the national debates

Conclusions of national debates and contributions from International non-governmental Youth organisations.