Back in February, ECYC was selected by the European Youth Forum to be one of the 10 International Youth NGOs participating in the 5th cycle of the Structured Dialogue with young people in 2016-2017. The Structured Dialogue is a continuous process that brings together young people, policy-makers nd INGYO representatives across the European Union to jointly discuss, formulate and put forward proposals for the development of youth policy at national and European level. The topic of this cycle of the Structured Dialogue is vey general: 'enabling all young people to engage in a diverse, connected and inclusive Europe'.

At the beginning of April, ECYC participated in the EU Youth Conference in Amsterdam. The event takes place every six months and is organised by the EU country holding the Presidency of the Council of the European Union (Slovakia and Malta for the next 12 months). At the first EU Youth Conference, our task was to identify the main challenges that young people in Europe face nowadays. ECYC participated mainly in the discussions on the recognition and validation of the skills acquired by young people through non-formal activities. Nevertheless, several other topics were discussed at the Conference. As a result, 6 guiding questions were drafted in order to conduct consultations with young people and representatives of youth oganisations during the summer:

1) What changes in society are you concerned about and what do you need to be able to adapt to such changes? What would make you feel more secure?

2) What would help you connect more and build trust with people from a different cultural, social, economic, religious background than yours?

3) What can be done to avoid the stigmatization of vulnerable young people and provide them with equal opportunities in society?

4) What do you think makes you feel that you belong to a local community, to society, to Europe?

5) What competences would help you when you are facing difficult situations?

6) What would you need to fully realize your potential and help others to realize theirs?

At the ECYC G.A. that took place from May 27th to 29th in Brussels, participants answered the 6 questions and discussed the various topics.

You can access a summary of their answers here.