 We will start our session with the closing debate on the European Year of Youth and the endorsement of the Charter for Youth and Democracy. We have several guests. I would like to welcome them all to our session. The European Commission Vice President Margaritis Chinas and Commissioner for Promoting Our European Way of Life. We have also our Rapporteur Tina Rodinja, Tania Ristova, the Chair of the SEDEC Commission Vincenzo Bianco, Chair of the CIVEX Commission. We have Lidia Praire, Member of the European Parliament, Alicia Omsginal, Member of the European Parliament, and President of the Young European Socialists. Lidia Praire is the President of the Youth of the European People's Party. We have Tania Danaria Sucuri, President of the European Liberal Youth, Alexios Karamanolas, Acting President of the European Young Conservatives, Valentina Cervera Clavel, President of the European Free Alliance Youth, Benedetta Skuderi, Coast Co-Person of the Federation of Young European Greens, Natalya Shevchuk, Chairperson of the National Youth Council of Ukraine. That's at least what we expect. We have Afsa El-Bazio, Deputy Mayor of Gantt in charge of Youth, Beata Stepanyuk Kuzmierzak, Deputy Mayor of Lublin in charge of Youth, members of our Young Elected Politicians Program, Celia Marcula, she's the President of the European Youth Forum, Andrei Moschalenko is the first Deputy Mayor of Lviv from Ukraine. So we have a lot of speakers and all the conditions to have a very exciting debate about youth and about the European Charter. So dear Vice President Chinas, dear representatives of political party youth organizations, a year ago our plenary session adopted a resolution on the European Year of Youth in Marseille in March this year. A few days after the brutal invasion of Ukraine by Putin's regime and with a strong feeling of solidarity and determination to make our fundamental values prevail, we were launching the co-creation of the European Charter on Youth and Democracy together with our friends from the European Youth Forum. In the meantime, fulfilling our role as a consultative body, we also initiated the work for an opinion on the future of youth policy in the EU under the repertorship of our colleague Mr. Radinja. Today, as we gather to close the European Year of Youth, we bear the fruits of our work. We will formally endorse the European Charter on Youth and Democracy, the result of a co-creation process bringing together young people, youth organizations, young elected politicians as well as local and regional representatives. So without further delay, it is my great pleasure and honor to give the floor to the European Commission's Vice President, Argariti Chinas, to address our assembly. Vice President, you have the floor for 10 minutes. Thank you, dear President. Thank you, dear friends, for having me this morning. It's a special day. Today, the Thunder Lion Commission has its three-year anniversary. It was on the 1st December 2019 that this commission took over, and it's a pleasure to start such a special day in your company. I understand today the center of gravity of our exchange is youth, but I already told the President earlier this morning that it would be a privilege for me to come back and have a broader political debate with the members of the Committee of Region on the multidimensional nature of my portfolio responsibilities on a Europe that protects with migration, borders, public health, security, but also Europe of opportunities, culture, education, sports, youth, and mobility. But let us concentrate on youth. The European Year of Youth has been a resounding success. It has built a momentum, and it has led to widespread mobilization across Europe, raising awareness on opportunities available to young Europeans. We have a debt to this generation of young Europeans. This was the generation that suffered a lot during the pandemic, that missed opportunities from education, socialization, travel, mobility, employment, and this debt is something that we as institutions need to correct. So the European Year of Youth has led to key achievements. The outreach was important. Engagement and awareness-raising activities led to more than 150 million Europeans being involved with more than 77,000 activities mapped on our official European Youth portal. Next year, it is our duty to harvest the results of this unprecedented mobilization and see how we can translate them into concrete, specific recommendations for further policy development and we'll be delighted to share those, not only with the college leaders but also with this committee. I think as a key legacy of the year and in response to the demand and interest of young Europeans, we now need to concentrate on something that matters most than the rest. And I think that this beyond any doubt is our duty to enhance young people's involvement in policy, politics, and policy-making potential. We need young Europeans to get involved in public life. We need their ideas. We need their enthusiasm. And a way that could help us to do that is to this idea of a youth test that could also attract a cross-sectoral dimension, make politics less complicated, nudging people to join public life and public space without having to go through a technical process of learning or adaptation. And the upcoming 2023 year of skills, it's also a nice and logical continuation of the year of youth. As you know, we have presented in the commission an updated skills agenda which was also rooted and validated in the Porto Social Summit. Europe needs a skills revolution. We have less people in our job markets than we need and we have people who are significantly lacking skills in key areas for our economy like the twin transition, digitalization, green economy, engineering, but also in areas like healthcare, tourism, and hospitality industries. We have to bridge this gap with upskilling and risk-killing, linking it to our job markets. At the same time, we need to use the European year of skills next year to make sure that our educational systems, our educational tools are equipped to provide this level of knowledge. And we need to do something else. This skills revolution should be of interest and concern to everybody in Europe. Should leave nobody behind. For many years, training was easier for those Europeans who had the chance to live in cities who were well-connected to trade unions, to universities that had ways around vocational and educational training. The skills revolution we need now needs to cover, especially those who do not have access to these avenues for improving their life. People who live on islands, mountainous regions that are cut off from university studies and we have to make a particular effort to that effect. Let me quickly mention another area where youth matters a lot, which is migration. As you know, since 2020, this commission, we are struggling to establish for the first time a single, cohesive, comprehensive European framework for migration. We are converging to a big European agreement to that effect. We are not yet there, but I'm very confident that we will get there by the end of this political cycle. In this context, young people are essential in our work on migration, both as a target group, but also as stakeholders that need to be consulted. We invited young people to actively be involved in our European Migration Forum in October last year. This forum attracted more than 200 people, young people, and focused on youth inclusion and we are very pleased that the Committee of Regions was a key player in this forum. A key area where we need young Europeans on migration policy is the area of integration and inclusion. We need to reflect how to make our schools, our hospitals, our residences more inclusive. We need to provide opportunities for all. We need to be able to share our European way of life and achievements with those who aspire to be part of our societies. But I want also to be clear before this Committee that this has to be a two-way street. We will do everything to promote inclusion and integration, but those who aspire to be with us would also have to make an effort to abide by our values, our principles, the model of society we stand for. And this would entail the respect for women and the family in society and in the workplace, the absolute respect of religious tolerance and the peaceful coexistence in our societies. Without this double track of integration and inclusion will never work in Europe. Let me conclude by saying a few words on Ukraine. We have taken just eight days since the start of the war and unprecedented a historic decision. For the first time ever in community history, we activated the temporary protection directive that offered immediate and unconditional access to more than 6 million Ukrainian refugees, to our schools, to our hospitals, to our job markets and to our residence permits. This was a big and to a certain extent is still because this protection status is always valid. This has been a major European success story. It came as a result of a unanimous agreement of our member states and it proved that we can do, we can introduce some positivity into the very often toxic debate around migration. We have also mobilized all available instruments to offer the best possible support to make this integration not only a right in the statute book, but a tangible reality. Especially for young Ukrainians, this support has included peer learning, online platforms, policy guidance, tools and funding. And we also provided concrete and practical suggestions to our member states and to our regions on how specifically support the inclusion of Ukrainian displaced children, young people and educators. Ladies and gentlemen, we are now moving into a new era of more demand for concrete coordinated European action on youth. This is something that we can never do alone. We need synergies. We need cooperation. And I do not, I cannot find a better partner in this endeavor than the Committee of Region, the Committee of the Regions, the Committee of the Region that brings together representatives from the vibrant world of regional and municipal politics. We have something that is ahead of us and spans most of the work that is done on Europe, not only on youth policy, and it's something that we can do together. And this is to de-bracelize Europe. I'm not sure this work exists, if it doesn't, I just invented it, but we need to take the European Union out of Brussels. We need to take it to your regions, to your cities, to your town halls. There where the problems exist, there where people have expectations for solutions, for tools, for ideas for the future, instead of bracelizing our policy development and discussing about procedures, buildings, rules, and technicality. Thank you. Thank you very much for having me. Thank you. Thank you, Vice President. Now I will give the floor to our rapporteur on the opinion about the future of youth policy in the EU, Tina Radinja. You have the floor for five minutes. Thank you. Good morning. Hope you are all great. The introduction of Vice President Sheena has already tackled upon many of the problems, concerns that young people are facing across Europe today. And the roles of opinions and policies is to address those concerns as effectively as possible. I believe that also this opinion is going and contributing to that. So why to adopt an opinion paper on youth? Or even better, why does it mean to be a young person in Europe today? And what do young people expect from their villages, their towns, their regions? What kind of opportunities? What kind of actions? I do not know, but I asked many of the representative youth organizations that we have in Europe, institutions, many partners. And I'm very thankful to their contribution to our opinion paper. With this opinion paper, we offer a new and comprehensive reflection on the youth policy in EU, mainstreaming youth issues on many areas and policy fields, and support the active participation of young people in building the future of Europe. All this on the background of 2022, the European year of youth. Firstly, we want the opinion to contribute to the strengthening of policy at EU level by making proposals aimed at ensuring that EU has an ever-growing positive effect on the role of the youth inclusion and participation in society. And also that local and regional levels are better taken into the account at all stages of the implementation of the EU youth strategy. And I really wish that the opinion will be successful in promoting the reinforcement of the youth perspectives across all relevant policy areas. We heard how many there are, and contributing to a more friendly, to more youth-friendly EU policymaking with a stronger intergenerational justice approach. The opinion focuses on seven main areas. On youth mainstreaming, opinion calls upon local and regional authorities to treat youth issues as a constant priority in policymaking and proposes the adoption of local youth strategy, if they are still missing, in all local and regional realities. The opinion calls the European Commission to implement an EU youth test, and I'm very happy that the Vice President already spoke about it, and calls to support measures that will strengthen and empower youth organisations as strong European youth organisations contribute to civic education, increased knowledge on democracy, and much more active citizens. On employment and social protection, the opinion calls for appropriate measures to ensure that young people' rights to stable employment with decent working conditions are met everywhere in Europe. That means also banning of the unpaid internships. The opinion recommends the strengthening of the coordination on the youth employment policy, especially regarding the implementation of reinforced youth guarantee, one of the programs that really showed its strength in the past. Especially with stress that the difficult areas and high cost of housing plays a significant role in impending the autonomy of young people. Coming to this, on the mental health and well-being of young people as one of the important policy areas, many young Europeans have faced a greater risk of poverty and social exclusion due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the opinion paper calls EU for supporting measures that are aimed at ensuring that young people are always sufficiently supported in times of crisis. Therefore, the opinion highlights the importance of access to universal, affordable, quiet quality health services, both preventable and curable. On meaningful participation, the European Europe youth is a great opportunity to encourage meaningful youth participation, and its legacy should aim to be structural strengthening of democracy for young people with the emphasis of role of representative youth organizations. We need strong policies on area of youth participation, so it's never tokenized to picture opportunities and consultations, but meaningful two-way process. Our common goal should be simple. More young people consulted, more listened to, and much more elected to a decision-making positions. For that, we can use different tools and initiatives, including vote 16 initiative. There are four more areas, but that you can read in the opinion paper, I would just like to conclude with a mission for all of us in the Committee of Region. Local and regional authorities have important competencies in many fields that are relevant to youth policy, housing, education, employment, fight against poverty, discrimination, work to youth organizations, and so on. Therefore, I would like to ask you not just to support the opinion, but swift and successful implementation of the policies that are already adopted and those that we're going to. Thank you. Thank you so much. Now the floor goes to the Chair of SEDEC Commission, Tania Ristova, for three minutes. Good morning, dear Vice President Shinus, President Cordero, dear colleagues, dear guests. It's a real honor and privilege to join you in this debate which marks the ending of the European Year of Youth, a year that saw an extraordinary engagement from our Committee, both in the terms of proposals, political visions, and facilitation of the dialogue between different stakeholders at all levels, including the youth organizations. We have already heard from the rapporteur Mr. Rodinia about the priorities for the future of youth policy. Therefore, here I would like to share my personal conviction that ensuring quality education, ensuring quality training and employment for our young people is really an important investment, but it is also important to take care of their well-being and social protection. Beyond that, it is our duty to reflect on the youth participation in our communities and engage the young generation fully in our democratic processes, really starting from the local level. Our young people need to feel their potential to be active and credible in our societies, and this to be in societies where they are really free and able to participate and contribute to, according to our core democratic values. Therefore, in the context of the European Year of Youth and inspired by the debate at the conference on the future of Europe and its methods to engage citizens widely in this process, our Committee launched a bottom-up participatory process with young people to draft a charter on youth and democracy, and here it is the moment to thank the core leadership for taking this initiative and inflating it with life and energy. Our partner in this drafting process was the European Youth Forum, which represents millions of young people across Europe. Based on the ideas of the young people from different organizations, the charter shows ways to create and consolidate a more youth-friendly democratic space where young people can become formally and continuously represented within the European Union, its debates, its decision-making process, and also to start this from our cities and our regions. It encourages dialogue between youth and local politicians and many initiatives that will bring the full position of our young generation. I would like to add that this charter is not only a tangible contribution from our Committee to the Year of Youth, but it is also a follow-up to the Conference of the Future of Europe and its conclusions on citizens' engagements and youth involvement in our European and local democracies. Our Committee will continue to work hand in hand with the European Commission, European Youth, and just final sentence to address my colleagues here in this room and also from the other countries in the European Union, to commit and to contribute to the results that are expected in this charter. Thank you. Now, the floor goes to the Chair of CIVEX Commission, Vicenzo Bianco, for three minutes. Thank you, Chairman. I wanted to express my sincere appreciation for what the Vice-President of the European Commission said, because it really goes to the heart of what we're dealing with. And also the final conclusion is one that I welcome, where he states that we need to brusselize or de-brusselize our communities. I would agree, but to complete the process, we also need the opposite. We need to bring the voice of our local and regional authorities to Brussels, too. Otherwise, we have the impression that the EU legislates for itself and that its just dominated by technocratic language. But given that we're facing difficult times, I agree that we need to be optimistic. Democracy is fragile because of the recent events, but it's also a moment where we can build together solidarity and reinforce the principles that allow us to deal with adversity in a better way. When it comes to participation and youth, a great deal remains to be done. And with our CIVEX Commission, we will do this. We'll try and be as specific as possible. Young people don't need grand principles to be bandied about. What they need is change in their day-to-day life. They need to see how their capacity to have an impact can be fostered. During the conference on the future of Europe, a great deal of attention was paid to youth and participation, and this is something that we will work on in CIVEX. We need to make sure that young persons have greater opportunities. The current programs for participation and representation need to be improved at all levels. We need to develop specific impact tests to make sure that new legislation has a youth dimension. Then citizenship and their participation needs to be improved, too. And all of these proposals, of course, are also reflected in the chart. Now, the CIVEX Commission is planning on providing a contribution to this to make sure that these principles are translated into specific action for our young men and women. They need specific proposals. Thank you. To our first Vice President, Apostolo Cicicostas. Thank you very much, President, dear representatives of the youth's organizations, dear colleagues. The young European generation has been educated in an era of information and knowledge about boundaries and without boundaries. So it has been traveling without the burden of borders and checkpoints. It is a generation that has seen integration and globalization not as threats, but as opportunities for education, exploration, employment, and exchange. So at the same time, the young European generation is called to tackle new challenges, climate emergency, migration, demography, and brain drain. Now, in order for them to be empowered to resolve unsolved new crises, they must be involved as soon as possible in the governance of a globalized world. It is with this in mind that participatory democracy and other forms of inclusive dialogue with citizens must be supported, starting from our level, starting from the local level. And it is with this in mind that the youth involvement must be guaranteed through concrete acts, for example, the right to vote at age 16 in the European Parliament, the right to put forward citizens' initiatives, and of course, to promote referenda. Dear colleagues throughout the European Year of Youth, we have been listening and we also have innovated by including more and more young people in activities through the YEP program. Now, we need to seize the momentum that was created by the conference on the future of Europe and of course, by the citizens' debates and promote new inclusive form of the citizens' dialogues, starting from the city hall debates on European topics, having territorial impact, which can be managed by local youth associations in partnership with their mayors and their regional leaders. Now, because there is no future without our young generation, we decided at the Summit of Regions in Marseille to co-create a new charter for youth and democracy with the European Youth Forum and this is in order to strengthen young people's participation in the European political life and I want to thank all of you for your commitment. Now, as the year is approaching to its end, next year, our aspiration will be dedicated to skills and education and there is a need to secure principles and values on which our union was created. For this, we need to develop a full civic experience for Europeans as it was proposed by COFE and to this end, we joined the call for introduction of a European curriculum for civic education, which includes the promotion of European values, critical thinking and media literacy and knowledge about our union. I am sure that we can all be of great health and it is with this in mind that youth involvement must be guaranteed through these concrete acts that I mentioned earlier. So I want to thank all of you for your involvement and I am sure that the Ukrainian youth can today help us and inspire us when it comes to keep fighting for those freedoms and values that young Europeans once fought for and which remain, of course, our main achievement. Thank you. Thank you, Apostolos. Now we have a video sent to us by Lidia Praira, President of the Youth of the European People's Party. Can we have the video? Dear President of the Committee of the Regions, Vasco Cordero, dear Commission Vice President Margaritis Kinas, dear President of the European Youth Forum, dear friends, I would like to welcome this important contribution of the Committee of the Regions started under the EPP core presidency of Apostolos, the Charter for Youth and Democracy. This document is the result of a strong commitment from the core to engage in particular with youth organizations, including EPP, in order to build on projects and principles under the European era of youth and beyond. The Charter is the result of a participatory exercise through the whole year of 2022, where youth partners played the leading role. Moreover, this is why this ceremony is important. It gives dignity and symbolic importance to a relevant document that could contribute to influencing political processes in a transversal way from the local level to the European level, achieving a compromise in the construction of a tool like this, recovers awareness of the importance of political commitments, the idea that it is possible through the debate of ideas involving civil society organizations to build proposals based on political consensus, creating better conditions for European citizens. This ceremony should also inaugurate a strategy to promote this Charter, starting with this celebration. We now must continue its path in its need for spreading out the message in its desire to deliver in the translation of proposals, ideas and commitments in concrete actions, already in the next electoral processes. I would also like to highlight the fact that the four topics in the letter largely follow the youth of European people's past's priorities, namely education, cooperation, information, youth empowerment, leadership and democratic participation, the role of new technologies and digitalization and youth mainstreaming of policies and political representation. In the context of political participation and the defense of liberal democracy, which has been so threatened in recent times, these are in fact the main ideas, areas that guarantee us a healthy, full and future democratic construction. Nevertheless, allow me to highlight some concepts that I consider particularly relevant from the letter and which I could not fail to mention. The first one is generational inclusion and democratization. I find particularly interesting the will shown in the letter to create conditions for greater inclusion and political democratization, namely for young people with fewer opportunities. It is fundamental to strengthen the financial conditions of the youth organizations for these political participation. I must on this point make a warning so that the design of the programs, the evaluation criteria and the evaluators are as little biased as possible. At this regard, I call upon for respect of the political agendas from the organizations without limiting or technically conditioning the political agendas of the same organizations as it happened recently in some European financial programs. The second one is the dimension of intergenerational justice or fairness. The institution of a youth test mechanism to ensure that all new EU legislation and policies are subject to a youth-focused impact assessment is something that deserves to be recognized and valued. It recovers an agenda that has been defended by this European center-wide organizations claiming for a sustainable future for the right of future for the new generations. The third one is the importance of political participation. We must be grateful, encourage and value the political and citizenship participation of the youth. Fostering the conditions and spaces, forums for democratic youth participation is crucial in developing and strengthening the liberal democracy. However, this political engagement must be a formal political participation. Digital spaces are important information and sharing platforms, but they are often inconsequential. This aspect brings me to the next point. Valuing party militancy and formal spaces for political engagement. Democracy is built with rules and respecting those rules with practices and with elections. Experiencing democracy is the best way to exercise it. There is no democracy without political parties. We must stop certain political downgrade of political parties which so often opens space for populist discourses without any commitment to ideological principles. This discourses leaves room for occasional political agents and at the behest of particular interests instead of a vision of the world that defends a collective common good with respect for the primacy of the dignity of the person. The fifth is young people in places of political representation. Young people are not only the future, they are the present and let's face it, they are underrepresented compared to other generations in the spaces of political debate and decision. It is not enough to give voice and listen to what young people and their organizations have to say. We have to create conditions for younger generations, act, decide and take their place in the decision making process. Being a member of the European Parliament, of government, of city council, of a municipality cannot be a privilege of just a few. It has to be a political imperative of respect and representative justice if we want to continue to give democracy a future. I would like to thank you for the invitation and the opportunity given to me to share some thoughts and celebrate with you such important documents as the European Charter on Youth and Democracy. Thank you. Now we go to the online participation of Alicia Omsginal, president of the Young European Socialists. You have the floor for three minutes. Can you hear me? Loud and clear. Ah, now the camera, now, okay. Thank you, sorry. Can I speak in Spanish, right? Even if it's remotely? Now we cannot hear you. We'll get back to you. We'll get back to you. Or not. Can you go ahead? Okay. There are some technical difficulties. We try to solve them and we'll get back to you. Don Aria Sukuri, you have the floor for three minutes. Dear colleagues, dear friends, thank you so much for welcoming me to this important event. Now, we are gathered here to talk about youth, because this is the year of the youth. And we talk about, we heard all the speeches on how important this generation is and how much has been lost through the pandemic, through the war, and how much we need to solve, because the youth is our future. But I would argue the youth is not only our future, it is our present, and it is the development of Europe. Because let's not forget, Europe is a place that is aging. Generations are getting older. At the same time, the younger people are getting few. And not only that, after the pandemic, now during the war, these young generations are depressed, deprived of jobs, deprived of opportunities that I had when I was a bit younger. I still am young, by the way. But anyways, and all these possibilities that developed Europe, that developed the wealth we have in this union, that developed the visions and the values we have. And this is why I argue that the year of the youth should be a year of Europe or actually a path of Europe, because we need to focus on these issues. In Sweden, where I live, 25% of my generation is without a job. At the same time, in the north part of my country, we have a big factory looking for people, looking for new hands, new feet, and new skills. The young people, they cannot go, because then we have other issues. We have housing, transportation, and of course, the fact that people leave small areas to do things like me, which brings me to the next priorities I would like to highlight here. When we talk about year of the youth, when I see this document, a lot of good things has been brought, a lot of important things, such as including the young people in the democratization of Europe, including the fact that people are, of course, with my generation, without a job and, of course, feel mentally ill, and this is very important things to prioritize. But I would also, in this path, like to highlight, we heard a word before, the Brussels fire or something. I think it was very interesting because when we talk about it, it should also include all the youth. I mean myself and many here, we came here because we are Brussels fight. We went to universities, we studied, we traveled, and we have jobs like this. But I would also like to see that when we talk about youth and improvisation, we also talk about the fact that people are different, not everyone wants to go to university, not everyone wants to study, not everyone wants to come here to Brussels, the shock. And this is why we also need to focus on all skills. We also need to focus on the practical skills and that's the local development, the regional development of these jobs because this is something that I think will bring many young people up to their career level and make a path for their life. Thank you. Thank you so much. Now the floor goes to the president of the European Young Conservatives, Alexios Karamanolas. You have the floor for three minutes. Speaking Greek, if that is okay. Yes. Dear ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for the opportunity you're giving me today to express publicly at a union level as president of European Youth Conservatives, their voice. The European Charter for Youth and Democracy, which is what we're discussing today, correctly calls for a bigger participation of young people in policy-making decisions. I believe that all social and political powers need to include youngs in policy decision-making processes and when decisions need to be made that concern the future of young people, we need to take into consideration their interests. However, allow me to remark that we cannot achieve a better participation of young people by introducing quotas. On the contrary, what young people in Europe need today is to have more influence when it comes to their present and their future. It is our obligation to offer to young people opportunities that will encourage them to participate more actively themselves in political and social fora. This empowerment of young people will create a spirit of mutual respect and will help them understand better their own rights as well as their obligations. Young people in Europe need to understand that they themselves share their own responsibility on how to shape the future of Europe. And for this reason, they need to take action. On the other hand, the older among us need to understand that the European youth is a strategic capital which if guided correctly will find solutions and tackle our future challenges. The reason that young people in Europe are the best part of the European society to achieve tackling these challenges in a world that changes on a daily basis, young people bear no bias, they're open to new ideas and they're loyal to the European principles. A first step towards the correct direction which will empower young people in order to take more action when it comes to decision-making policies is to try to keep these young people in their birthplace in order for local societies to benefit from their knowledge, their talents and their skills and they themselves would be able to build their families and their futures there. However, many young people, especially from Northern and Eastern Europe are forced to leave their countries and migrate to Northern countries and even in other continents, abroad in general. Personally, I believe that this is unacceptable. To leave your country in order to get more experience academically should be a personal choice, not something you're forced to do, but unfortunately, many young people do not have the luxury of this choice and I'm talking about migration from personal experience. My parents at the end of the 80s were forced to migrate to Germany and I was born there in the beginning of the 90s. 10 years later, my parents returned to Greece and me, after that, in my home country I was able to serve my military service, go to school there, but I myself, a few years ago, I had to migrate because of the financial situation in Greece. This type of migration, as a result of lack of choices for young people, led Greece, but many other countries, to be cut from their more active and bright part of their society. Now it's time to reverse this tendency. Thank you, thank you very much. Thank you. So, the EU is doing many steps towards the EU, dedicating this year to us has surely confirmed this effort and so I've done the many events and dialogues undertaken. About this I would like to thank you, the Committee of the Regents, for this opportunity to speak on behalf of the young European Greens. However, we are concerned that these efforts might be rather performative. Precisely in the European Europe youth, many youth organisations have found themselves with no funding. We are therefore very glad to see that this concern is taken into account in the opinion paper. Youth participation is not possible without funding. When discussing about youth, we must adopt an intersectional perspective. Indeed, a 20-year-old from a rural area of southern Spain does not have the same opportunities of a 20-year-old in Amsterdam. Similarly, a young woman or trans or non-binary person faces higher difficulties than a young cis man and the EU must aim at eradicating these differences to guarantee equal rights and opportunities to all young people, regardless of their provenience, gender, background and abilities. Not young person should be forced to leave their homes to fulfil their life projects. However, too many currently are living their homes as we are a generation of crisis. High unemployment, economic regressions, pandemic and even the ever more imminent climate emergency, just to name a few. Without concrete actions, the European Europe youth will only remain as youth-wishing. Therefore, we are happy to have seen different topics tackled in your opinion paper. For example, quality education. We need better and more education system everywhere and for everyone. Work condition and decent wages. No young person should be forced to work for free or to accept any job because anything is better than nothing. We need to give young people the opportunity to blossom with their capabilities and qualities. Mental health. After this two-year or mental health, our mental health has been undermined and too little has been done about it. This might be a primary concern and this needs to be addressed through an intersectional lens, taking into account the impact of poverty and housing crisis, for example. Youth participation. This cannot only mean listening. Young people must have a central role in the decision-making process. The existing huge differences on youth participation among member states are unacceptable. Such is the difference of minimum ages to stand for the same parliament as in the case of the EU parliament. Now we need to make these promises into actions. We need to make the EU institutions closer to the youth that feels to not have any future. Getting out of Brussels is crucial to spread the European culture in every angle of union of the union and beyond. So we want to see the outcome of these European European youths existing beyond 2022. We want a Europe who are being a young European citizen and that provides a common meaning for each one of us. Thank you very much. Dear colleagues, dear friends, as there is a very long list of speakers, I will ask you to follow the rules and be within the timeframe that you are given. Let's connect or try to connect now with Alicia Holmes-Ginner. Is this a possibility? Are you connected now? See, can you hear me? Yes, yes, go ahead, please. Thank you very much, chair. I'm sorry about the technical problems. A year ago, I was taking part in the same plenary session in my role, and it was at the beginning of the European year of youth. And I think now we need to take stock of that year of youth and it's a good time to do so. This is an opportunity to change structural realities, to speak directly with young people who don't have labor prospects or education prospects. Youth, we mustn't forget, is a key period in our personal development. And that's why this European year of youth was so important in terms of enriching all those young people with new opportunities and new ways of participation and also encouraging them to play an active role in our society. Youth, as we've already said, is a future, yes, but we also need them now to build that future. I think that the circumstances we're currently living in Europe, I mean, we have the war, obviously, and the consequences that we're experiencing because of it, have caused a lot of difficulties for our European year of youth compared to what we expected at the beginning. We expected better results. I think we haven't really achieved our maximum potential because of that. But things are in our hands. And when I talk about our hands, I mean, I'm talking about myself as an MEP as well, it's in our hands to make sure that this year can be effective and that it can help young people overcome the consequences of the pandemic and of the war and of Putin's war in Ukraine, in particular, fighting on several fronts, precariousness, making sure there's a fair transition between education and the labor market, talking about mental health and green transition, digital transition, a lot of other topics as well. And I just want to focus for a moment on the transition between education and the labor market. Non-remunerated work, I mean, this is something really important for our young generations and it's a form of exploitation of them. And I really would call upon all of us to come together and to prohibit those types of practices because this is an issue of social justice but it's also absolutely essential in our democracies and that's something we all need to be involved in. Thank you. So I would like to give the floor now to Ms. Cervera Clavel. Thank you very much. Thank you, Committee, for having. I am truly honored to be here today and I would like to thank the IA Group especially for their support. We're here to speak about the end of the year of the youth. A year of the youth that came by surprise and if you allowed me, a bit unplanned. A year of where we failed to ban unpaid internships, a year where we failed to make any impactful changes to slow down climate change, a year where we categorized nuclear energy as green energy. A year that following the COVID pandemic, the youth needed more than ever. And while I know this is not particularly the fault of this house, I think it would be a bit hypocrite to close the year of the youth without failing to acknowledge where we failed or where we could improve. But I do would like to commend the European Youth Forum and in particular as well, the Rapport 13, Arrachne, for their support and for all the collaboration throughout this period. Our generation has lived crisis after crisis, wars, inflation and an unprecedented pandemic. As my colleagues were referring before, most of our young Europeans nowadays have to emigrate daily. I myself had to leave my country at 18, Catalonia, because in Spain, studying in university is a privilege, not a basic human right. Young people do not want promises or years of the youth or paternalistic speeches about how full of hope and determination we are. We want a future. Young people want a future where they can have a non precarious job, a future when they can secure housing, a future when we can love, be and live whoever we want to be. I often hear that nowadays the youth do not want to work, they are lazy or they get offended easily. The reality is we want to work but we're not willing to settle for mediocre and precarious conditions. We want a fair future. We have seen our parents break their backs for pennies and we have said enough. Young people are telling you what we need and what we want and the problem is we do not invite often enough young people to the decision making college bodies. Like the vice president next to me was saying, we need to start encouraging young people from the grassroots, from the local level to see the impact at the top. Let's not listen to one another but rather let's work together. To build a Europe we can all be proud of. A green Europe, a Europe free for LGTBQ plus people, a Europe of equals, a Europe of old peoples. Thank you very much again for your time and let's learn from this year of the youth and make an impact for the future generations. Thank you very much. Thank you, thank you. Ms. Sevchuk please, online for three minutes. Are you connected? No. So we move to Ms. Stepanyuk Kuzmirzak please, online for two minutes. Ladies and gentlemen, I am very happy to address you from Lublin, one of the biggest cities in the east of Poland and an academic center. We in a month's time will take over from Tirana as the European youth capital. This was a grassroots initiative from the youth of our city from NGOs who said, you managed to rebuild our city after decades of communism. You managed to build infrastructure. What we're missing in this town is the participation of young people, the young people that you've done this everything for. Young people want to create an open city, an accessible city, open to all. A city that is and will be a meeting place for young people from Poland and Europe. A city that will support their needs and their aspirations and their dreams. A city where young people regardless of their origin and views and religion feel at their place and their voice is heard and is valued. We wanted to apply for the title of the European capital of youth to engage in an intergenerational dialogue about the future of our city as an opportunity to talk about its present and future as an opportunity for the creation of sports institution, cultural institutions and some other institutions, depending on the importance assigned to them by young people. And when we created our applications, we already started in Lublin, engaging in a number of activities that will pay off in the future. This is what we hope for. The year where we will be the European year of culture of the youth is a time for change for us to shape our future, shape the future of our city. I just wanted very briefly to draw your attention to two special aspects, if I may. When we applied for this title, we experienced two important events. The pandemics, first of all, we couldn't really carry out our consultations. And I welcome the fact that the charter that we're discussing today also touches on new technologies. This was of key importance to us. And I would like to move now to Ms. Moskalenko, please. Okay, there seems to be a problem with the connection. Now, dear colleagues, we are entering the one-minute statements. So I would like to start by giving the floor to Anna Zachariado. Ms. Zachariado, one second, please. I see Mr. Moskalenko is now connected. Please, you have the floor for two minutes, please. Dear colleagues, so today big pleasure to be together with you. We presented today the city which awarded last week like European Yas Capital Plan 25. And so it's a big win of the whole our country, not only Lviv, all Ukrainian cities from Mariupol to Lviv, from Herson to Kiev. And so it's big pay tribute to Yas. And I wanna say you like three brief points that today, these days, we have like last weeks, we have big troubles with electricity, with heat supply and water supply, but our cities and what's the most important are we Yas, they self-organize, they are volunteers, they are defenders and they are really the bravers who inspired from the second point. So we have to work on ourselves, we have to become more stronger because this world have respect to that who are strong and that what today Ukrainian Yas show when they fight for all democratic values. So it's really great and so it's inspirational. And the third one, what's quite important to build bridges between that who are building, who are working on European values. And so we are for us big proud today to be together with you, especially in this year, year of Yas. And so we today definitely know what the real cost of developing Yas is. And so today, Ukrainians Yas together with that all values which we have in European Union. So we share and we know the cost and we will win together with you. Thanks and big respect for all your work. I understand, thank you very much and I understand you have been awarded the European Culture Capital. And so I would like on behalf of all the members of the European Committee of Regions to congratulate you on that. Thank you very much. The floor now to Anna Zahariado for one minute please. I'm sorry to interrupt. Dear Mr. President, distinguished members of the Committee of the Regions, dear guests, it's an honor for me and my city to address this plenary on behalf of the EPP young politicians. And I wholeheartedly thank you for your presence. Citizens' participation has been the objective since the democratic polity of Klistenis and youth empowerment, a timeless desideratum for the European Union. The charter constitutes a clear step towards the direction of practically addressing young members greatest demands, education, inclusion, employment, green and digital transition. But there is still a lot to be done and it is vital that more young people take part in the process. Focusing on the world's biggest crisis, COVID, energy and our war, we sometimes forget that our societies are more insecure and divided than ever. Let us stop seeing the world in black and white. Local authorities, as the cornerstone of governance and youth, as the heart of our societies, we can and will do it together. Giammine them, ensemble. Thank you. Thank you very much. I would like to give the floor now. It's my privilege to give the floor to a very active young leader from Greece, Mr. Nektarios Kaladzis. I will speak in Greek. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Thank you, Chairman. The excuse to be here today in the plenary of the Committee of Region is that 2022 was the youth year. After the pandemic, the energy of crisis, the youth of Europe, need to turn into action, this Europe that tackles social inequalities for better salaries and for a euphoria that's going to be closer to the young generation. Tackling the climate change, protecting the environment, should be our primary priorities, especially us who are the young elected at a local level. The young generation shouldn't be left behind in the digital transformation. All that has to do with the future of cities and regions for the Europe that we represent here. We need to create more incentives for young farmers in order for our continent not to be influenced by crisis. Our everyday future will depend for our life in the future with less traffic. We need to turn Europe climate neutral and have sustainable solution. We bear the responsibility to hand over a better Europe than the one that was handed down to us. United, we need to defend democracy and we need to make it stronger. One word, this huge change in the world that started from Europe and Greece. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you. To Bia, Maria, Wieninger. Youth participation plays a central role in the European youth charter and Vienna is a progressive city and already in its program of 2020 has as an objective to make sure that the city can become more livable for children and youth. How do we want to achieve this? Well, we see youth as experts on their matters, needs and interests and we want to involve them. And for the first time in its history, Vienna with the youth million has a budget of a million per year so it can implement projects and measures for and by children. All citizens of Vienna between the ages of five and 20 are called upon to give their ideas for the Vienna of tomorrow. The 20 projects that won the award were presented at the Youth Parliament and we are now currently implementing these projects across our city. We don't just talk about youth participation, we also live youth participation in Vienna. Dual Lele, please. Thank you, President. Today I think we have a historic chance to see the committee of the region be the first institution to implement what we could call a youth check. If we had to take concrete examples, maybe we could imagine that in four or five dossiers of the committee of the regions, maybe we could implement this youth check and have the youth have their say in some of the areas where the committee of the region is working on. But today, if I'm here, I want to talk to you about a dream. Why? Because having a dream is what allows to make a change, is what allows participation to grow when everywhere in Europe, abstention is growing. And this is not just in Europe, this is everywhere around the world these days. So this charter allows, as it's been said by my colleagues earlier, allows more focus, more funds, and more consideration into the political decision-making process. But, you know, we sometimes kind of feel like a kid who looks at his parents because he wants to understand. Thank you. And there's nothing worse, but to hear that, you know, we'll explain later. We'll explain later. So I invite the honorable members to just open up the process and the decision-making process. Thank you. The floor goes to Anton D. Jeff for one minute. Thank you very much for the opportunity to share your ideas. In all countries of the European Union, an agreement should be researched by possibility for young people to vote from the age from 16 as a local level in the national parliament, of the EU parliament. Then there will be more heard and youth will be interested in politics. For example, in Estonia, as a local level, young people vote from age from 16. To create opportunity to municipalities a young youth budget where the young people can be decided to the sense that objects is needed, as per the ground or the new skate park. Youth parliaments should be actively supported and more young people should be involved in various city commissions. And the discussion of the plan of the development of an infrastructure in the municipalities should be not take place without young people. It is necessary to disseminate information about all the possibilities of various programs in the European Union and organize training courses to how to write correctly application for the youth project. Political parties should be more active in the recwriting of new youth leaders. As the average age of the key figures is parties is higher. There should be a rotation, personal policy. Thank you very much for your attention. Thank you. So it goes to Mateusz Sabula for one minute. Thank you for the floor. I am a city councillor in the Amritsa and Podkarpatchi region of Poland. And it was a pleasure for me as a YEP to participate in the process of co-creation of the charter as a mentor based on the COR political advisors nomination. In my honest opinion, in politics, we should have a mixture of young people with open minds and fresh ideas together with older generations bringing their life experience and knowledge from previous roles. And the charter is a chance to put more balance to that mixture on a level of politics starting at the local going from national up to EU level. I'm satisfied to see the charter concentrating on the four areas mentioned before being free of ideological aspects. It is extremely important if you want charter to be successful and be implemented within our communities. Or we have different views but should have a common target on engaging young people into decision making process. Thank you very much. Thank you. The floor goes to Thomas Valens for one minute. Thank you. I'm Thomas. I'm a member of the YEP program, a proud member of the YEP program. And thanks to the YEP program, I can speak for my town and region in the EU and I can actively participate in the European legislative process. For instance, two weeks ago I joined the discussions on the position paper of the COR on the Nature Restoration Law. It also allows me to speak here during this plenary session. So yes, actually the future that we envision for youth participation is already here but there's still work to be done. Through the youth starters concrete recommendations, we can ensure that future possibilities for youth involvement are widened and consolidated by providing adequate political education but also by safeguarding the outcomes of youth participation are followed up and considered during the decision making process. For instance, through the implementation of a youth check. So in short, yes, we're already experiencing that future in which youth involvement is happening. But through the youth charter and its recommendations, we can ensure that it will have an everlasting effect and it will become the norm in policymaking and in politics in general. Thank you. Thank you. Now the floor goes to Fin Grimsel Schmitz for one minute. Yes, thanks for having me. Firstly, how politics is positively influenced by young people shows this great European Carter for Youth and Democracy itself which was significantly shaped by the expertise of young people. This clarifies how important it is that young people at all levels are involved in policy formulation in a structural, powerful and also multi-layered way. Youth participation often fails due to inadequate structures. The formation of Immuniscible Youth Council should not depend on how much money Immuniscibility has at its disposal. Youth participation platform need to have powerful rights, especially youth councils that have binding competences and celebrate successes also in my experience promoted the multi-layered participation of the less accessible young people because they counteract disenchantment with politics. A powerful tool would also be a youth test which includes, for example, a binding consultation of youth organizations. And as we need to start now the implementation of the Carter, I ask you if the CRR may be the first European institution to establish the test. Thank you. Thank you. Now the floor goes to our political groups and it's my pleasure to give the floor to our colleague, Jelena Dreannin. You have the floor for two minutes. Thank you, dear President and members and listeners. I believe that the younger generations have the power to show an extraordinary commitment and creativity when it comes to build more sustainable, inclusive and human societies. But this requires confidence, faith in the progress, the certitude, the challenges can be overcome through hard work and dedication. Despite the multiple crises that you have mentioned here today, we initiated this charter on the DPP leadership of President Sisi Kostas with the idea that democratic spaces must be consolidated for and by the youth. Our ambition has always been that the voice of young people are formally and permanently represented in a policymaking cycle at all level of governance. And I'm very proud of what we have achieved. Our charter is the living legacy of European villages, cities and regions for the European Year of Youth. And the charter is the result of a participatory process that saw young partners in the front line with their genuine enthusiasm towards the European project. So they have worked hard and they have remained motivated and focused. And this is something we cannot waste. So let me stress this very clearly because European elections will take place in 2024. And they will happen in Europe that has become dramatically different than the one we had in 2019. So we need the hope, the visions for the future and the fresh mind of the youth to keep the European dream in the soul and mind of people. And to aim this as a part of the European family, we need to rethink our way of defending and building a strong and vital democracy. Free and democratic countries are the backbone of healthy people, values, businesses and economy. And one concrete action that we can promote for this is for example to lower the voting age for European election to 16 years. Just one thing, I want to say as Aristotle once said, face of empire depends on education of youth. But I would also like to say I'll use hopeful expectations of the future. Thank you. Thank you. We were able to get the representative of the Ukrainian from Ukraine back online, I think. So maybe we try to connect again. And Natalia Shevchuk, you have the floor for three minutes. Yes. Can you hear me? Yes, yes. Okay, wonderful. My name is Natalia Shevchuk. I'm the chairperson of the National Youth Council of Ukraine, Umbra organization, which represents more than 150 organizations from Ukraine. Checking about charter on youth and democracy, that's great to have as such a human through the past years. But at the same time, this charter is less relative to the neighborhood countries like Western Balkans and Eastern partnership countries and Ukraine in particular. Because our youth structures have a lack of support for our operational work and for the support of our teams in order to be able to continue our work on a daily basis. Also, we see the lack of communication between different structures within EU. There is no communication between DGE and DGNIR. At the same time, DGENIR is leading the implementation of youth policy in neighborhood regions. So there is a lack of professionalism view, like what's going on within our region and what are the real needs of young people. In terms of needs of Ukrainian youth, we are doing all to have democratic process here in terms of war. And in the current time, the biggest need is to ensure basic needs of young people, like access to internet, access to generators. This is not provided by international donor or if the youth organizations who are the young one and don't have much experience, they have a huge challenge to receive such support. And it's not without this basic need, it's not possible to continue further work and to be able to fight for democracy. All the things that we are discussing now, yes, they are great, they are needed, but if you don't have democracy on the gates of EU, in countries like Belarus, like Ukraine, you will never have peace, you will never have democratic process all over the Europe. We are all connected, we are like all ecosystem and we need a lot of attention, especially in such hard times to the needs of young people and civic society in our regions. I guess that's what I would like to address in case if there are additional questions or willingness to ask about particular support, what can be done for the youth organizations. We are very open to continue this, we are other means of communication. Thank you so much, Natalia, thank you for your testimony. Now we'll get back to the floor with our colleague, Sabah Borboly, for two minutes. Thank you, Mr. President, I will speak in Hungarian. Mr. and colleague, Dear colleagues, I'm an EPP member and I and my colleagues are committed to engaging with youth and participating with them. We shouldn't support youth, we need to work with them and see it as a true partnership. We need to encourage them to have a vision on the future and we need to encourage them to take part in a common political participative process and they need to be included in decision making too. And it's important to us that youth have a role to play in areas such as sport, health and any other area for that matter where they can bring their skills and competencies to the table. Now during the European year on youth, we have tried to implement all of this and we have the youth charter and under that process we managed to have youth involved in decision making. We work together with European youth and we need to make sure that opportunities are created for them at all levels and even before decisions are taken, youth need to be included, this at local and regional level primarily in our cities we need to create the right possibilities and environments for them and in youth parliaments we need to foster this too. Thank you Chairman, dear colleagues, dear elected persons, youth for Europe, Europe for youth, that was the slogan of the extraordinary meeting of the socialist group which took place in Florence and European youth increasingly have a decisive role to play in the European construction and we need to seize on this opportunity the European year of youth to provide specific answers to youth who are faced with an ageing continent, unemployment, discrimination, social exclusion and so on. By way of example, youth are hit hard by unemployment, 13% of all youth under the age of 25 are unemployed and this compared to 6% for the rest of the active population. Then there is climate change and mountains of debt which have been taken on over the past 50 years, youth quite legitimately can ask them where next and they have given their trust in local actors and we need to make sure that they have a reason for believing in the future and not despair about the present and in order to make this possible the challenges of youth need to permeate all European policy areas but in particular areas such as the environment, housing and climate. Youth also need to be involved at all levels of the European legislative process. Their active participation will allow them to decide on their own futures, look forward to quality jobs, affordable housing and universal health services. The European socialists will stand side by side with them as we did for the European youth guarantee and the European policy for cohesion territory over seven years. The recovery plan called Next Generation EU, these are all good examples of how European policies have allowed us to overcome challenges and reduce the disparities that exist between our territories and to improve the lives for future generations. In the area of social affairs, the social group has fought hard for remunerated internships and we need to fight poverty. We are in favor of a European deal for housing so that we can have affordable housing and quality housing. The program, the YEPS program within the Committee of the Regions, contributes to this because young elected persons are involved in key issues such as sustainable development, LGBTIQ plus rights, the digital and energy transitions and also the new modes of transport. The next European elections of 2024 are living large on the horizon and will be decisive for the European Union. The youth charter, which we will be signing today, is an essential step towards making sure that the voices of youth are heard in a permanent and continuous way across all of the European institutions. As you can see, the European Committee of the Regions is the spokesperson of young persons and together with them, we can move towards more European democracy, more rights, more solidarity and more social justice. It is now up to us to play our part and to be committed to this process. Thank you. The floor goes to Anne Roudi-Soulley for three minutes. Thank you, Chairman. Dear colleagues, I wanted to take the floor today because when we talk about European youth, there's an important issue that we need to look at. We need to properly understand what their fears, concerns and hopes for the future are. And it's difficult to do that when our own world is so uncertain. During the European year of youth, we have been meeting to look at the following issue. How can we offer our citizens a better future and make sure that future generations can prosper? How can we take into account their wishes and concerns when faced with fake news and misinformation? The future generations have legitimate expectations and that needs to prompt us to take the right decisions. They can no longer be mere spectators. We need to make sure that they are given a platform so their voices can be heard. President, our institution of the European Court Committee of Regents will be signing the youth charter and that will make sure that they are more involved in our own work. We need participatory committees and working groups where we can have committed youth because it will be the decision makers of the future. In my region, the Bush Run, we want to make sure that youth are closer to institutions by involving them in the decision making process. We have 58 youth who are full members. They take part in meetings over two years. There are six meetings a year. There are various committees, one dedicated to Europe, and they have a number of projects which have made it possible for this Department Council to look at matters for youth. For example, citizenship internships have been put in place and all of this ties in with citizenship. I strongly believe that we can only overcome the challenges before us by listening to youth. It's time to act. We need to make sure that youth representation is present in all of our local and regional authorities. It goes to our colleague Barbara Egedus for two and a half minutes. Thank you, President, dear colleagues. The ECR group from the outset has been in favor of institutions enhancing their work on the inclusion of youth in decision making. Youth represent the future of our municipalities and we need to improve their living conditions and we need to make sure that they have access to education employment and we also need to make sure that they are involved in political decision making. My city, West Prim, last year was one of the first three European youth capitals and we are very pleased about the fact that the jury liked our application and West Prim will be a city of youth for years to come. We will continue along these lines. We want students to study in West Prim or to return to West Prim after they have studied elsewhere and a great deal of effort is being deployed to make this possible. We are very proud to be able to say that a thousand young persons have already been able to voice their views. We have a youth round table that was set up and local students officers have been given their own resources. We have many plans for 2023 and Erasmus Plus is certainly of great assistance in these endeavours. We hope to have access to resources and we really hope that West Prim can be turned into a city of youth. We need to understand that it's thanks to young persons that we will continue to survive and flourish. It's important to work with youth and engage with youth. We need to make sure that they're active at local and European level. The floor is yours for two minutes. Yeah, thanks, Mr President. I think we call this the closing debate but when you actually look at the 49 points of the charter I think we're actually only opening the real debate, to be honest. There's so much rich detail. The 49 points are refreshing. There's ideas there on leadership and empowerment and integrated perspectives and solidarity and technologies and people's rights and civic and citizenship and it's really, really great. And I think one of the dynamic assets that could be harnessed to prioritize the charter is very much our young elected politician programme and I'd ask that they be plugged into this charter a lot more. I think it would be a real, real shame and a disappointment to not move forward and mind down even further into the 49 different points. That was one of the fears of the young people who worked on the charter. Mr President, I worked on this charter closely for 10 months since February as one of the CUR members. The contribution by young people was enormous. There were many, many, many meetings which I attended and the young people attended but I will never forget the physical afternoon that we had a physical meeting in late October where one of our JDEs in the main CUR building was just full of young people from across Europe. It was so empowering and yes, they were chatting, co-creating and how to take down barriers and to enable change. So this for us may be a closing session of the European Year of Youth but we're only opening the box. We really are. We need to do so much more. Even as a member of the working group on the youth culture sport, on the conference in the future of Europe, we spoke about the youth test. It's great that it could be possibly be across the line next year but from our side of the committee, the regions, we need to do more to push it across the line. I think the question now is where to start. Certainly there's a starting point with the EU year of skills and maybe promote best practices and local youth mentorships but what are which? And this is a quote by Kieran McCarty. If you empower our youth, the EU will be a greater success and I firmly believe in that. Also my sincere thanks to Silke Marcula for her two and a half year term as president of the youth forum. You did an enormous, fantastic job and congratulations. Thank you. Ufukaya, you have the floor for two minutes. Thank you for the floor, Mr. President. I would like to start by thanking the rapporteur for his excellent reports. Young people are our future and the future of Europe. This report rightfully calls for young people themselves to be involved in this future. It is important that young people are taken into account in policymaking at the local, regional, national and European level. Many policies directly affect young people's lives. Yet young people are often not included directly in policymaking. However, youth policy goes beyond involving young people in policies. Mr. President, talents are spread equally through Europe. The opportunity to develop them are not. Research shows that self-efficacy is the most important factor to enable youngsters to utilize their full potential. European youth policies should enable youngsters and youth to broaden their horizon and strengthen their confidence as they are our future. The rapporteur rightfully points out the importance of an intergenerational justice approach. I hope that the European Commission will implement measures on all seven areas that the rapporteur has described. We should build something bigger than ourselves. We should build the cathedrals of the 21st century as our ancestors did. Cathedrals of talent, cathedrals for the youth, cathedrals for a social, green and inclusive Europe. We thank again the rapporteur for his excellent work and the comprehensive opinion. Thank you. Thank you. Now the floor goes to Magali Altunian. One minute. Thank you, President, dear colleagues. Let me welcome the work that was done on the inclusion of youth through this charter by the Committee of the Regions. This was launched in Marseille in the region that I represent today. The charter shows the role that territories can play in taking account of the concerns of youth. A number of initiatives could be reinforced. We could educate youth more about European matters, but we could also have dedicated youth parliaments and involve them more and make sure that they're also represented at European level. So, of course, we support this charter and we certainly hope that it will lead to specific proposals, in particular looking ahead to the European year on skills. You have the floor for one minute. Yeah, thank you, Mr. President. Thank you very much, President. Today we've heard from a number of young persons who are well educated and are motivated and interested. Unfortunately, there are also other young persons. I come from a district, a city district, where, unfortunately, there's 30% unemployment, youth unemployment, and they really don't think they're being involved at all or can make anything happen. And they're quite easily swayed by those who offer straightforward solutions through radical, inhumane means, and therefore it is urgent for us to sign this charter and get to work. We need to involve youth at a very early stage in education, for example, in kindergartens. That should be free of charge. They need to be involved at all levels, at all ages, in all places, and political decisions apply to youth, not just in the future, but straight away now. So everything that is in the charter needs to be implemented. Get salad, one minute. Yes, thank you, Mr. President. Thank you very much, Chair. In the Grand Tess region, we have 4.2 square meters, and we have a lot of that as a border region with our German neighbors, as well as Switzerland, Belgium, and Luxembourg. It's important that we carry out activities to promote and train people in the languages of our neighbors, therefore. We've therefore created a provision called Do You Speak Youth? And it's all about teaching languages, and 35,000 young people have taken advantage of it. Our young people in Europe are so dynamic, and we want them to be so, to take on challenges of the future, and we want young generations to really build the renewal of the EU and the future of the EU. We've welcomed a lot of people in the European Parliament in Strasbourg and in the Grand Tess region, more than 200 young people, in fact, from active democracy to debate Europe. The approval of the charter, I'm very sorry, Chair, on European youth, is essential. It demonstrates our desire to preserve Europe for the future of our young people. Yeah, little Rosemann, one minute. Thank you very much, President. Thank you very much, President. I, too, welcome the fact that, in Tyrol, we can have democracy through a youth parliament that's enshrined in our region, but I think it's also important for youth to be in touch across borders. In Tyrol, South Tyrol, and Trentino, currently, many projects are being implemented across borders, and there was a very nice youth project that is being implemented. Youth between the ages of 16 and 22 years of age can submit projects that will be assessed and then monitored further. A French student is the current winner, and he suggested using drones to look at avalanches or the danger of avalanches, and that's certainly a very interesting project, and that's a very important project across borders. One minute. Dear President, we believe in the ECR group that it was a very good idea to dedicate 2022 to the European Year of Youth. It is crucial that youths find their place in this society, and therefore, we should encourage them to get actively involved in sports activities, charity organizations, and local politics. Many of us in this chamber started our political careers at a very early age. As local and regional authorities, we play a central role in the involvement of our youth in the decision-making processes. Young people often complain that they are blocked by older generations in their workplaces, but also in local and national politics. This should not be the case. Therefore, we welcome that the CUR dedicated much attention to this very important subject throughout this year. As to the opinion on the future of youth policy in the EU, in the ECR group, we agree with many provisions, but not where the rapporteur calls for changes in educational systems of member states through gender mainstreaming. The educational policy is a member state competence, and I believe it should be kept as such to take account of what we've heard. Thank you. Andrei Bula, one minute. Mr. Chair, it's weird, the adults. It is dependent enough whether young people will feel needed in the society whether they will have chat. We, the adults, we organize the lives in the primary school, in vocational schools, in the first job when decisions are taken to marry. So well-motivated adults people who are working for young people are as important as young people who want to engage. This has to be a balance. We have to prepare the tools, financials or political tools for young people to engage. Thank you, Lisa Ferreira, that you signed the European funds for Polish skaters, the European youth budget and European citizens budget is a very important tool. So thank you very much for this $7 million for my voivodeship, for my region. I'd like to thank you too that you focused very much on these, you limited the procedural requirements. Thank you very much, it's important. Josko Klizowicz, one minute. Thank you, Mr. President. The basic aim of youth policies to empower and include young people in decision-making. We have created a participatory process to actively engage them and listen to their views across all policy fields, including in building the future of Europe. Indeed, the EU's future depend on them and relies on them. This process resulted in the development of actionable recommendations, but that is not enough. All the efforts invested will make sense only if we see full implementation of EU charter on youth and democracy. In Zagreb, the Youth Council can participate in the work of the city assembly. It even can propose agenda items with the concrete acts for adoption. It can also participate in assembly discussions with elected representatives. In addition, all of the other agenda items of interest for young people, it can provide its opinion. The Youth Council is empowered and assisted to follow the implementation of all adopted legal acts, policy measures, and programs of their interest and is allowed to send proposals to mayor for his consideration. Thank you. Peter Florian shoots. One minute. Ladies and gentlemen, the integration of young people is the key to success. And this has been set out in our strategy for 2020-25. We're certainly moving in the right direction. Thousands of young people and children have been consulted. We have 190 concrete measures that have been put forward on various different sectors, transport, culture, environment, you name it. It's very important that young people are always involved actively and that they can always be involved in all of these processes. We have also taken certain budgetary measures and put aside budgets in order to make sure that these measures can be actually implemented. The digital world is a central point here. We have the DSA, the DMA, and the EU has succeeded in including the young people in this. We need to make sure we can protect children and young people through these acts. And I'm very thankful that we managed to do this. Thank you. Marco Vesligash, one minute. Thank you, Mr. President. Dear colleagues, youth are future, but youth are also the present. And our obligation as a local and regional authorities is to involve young people in the decision-making process. We need to strengthen the work of the youth organizations, youth councils, and all institutions that are dealing with the youth by encouraging policies and ensuring the possibility of starting education and training so young people can apply examples of good practice from other organizations on the level of national state as well as on the level of the European Union. It is also necessary to involve young people in other important political process such as regional and city councils. As local authorities, it's our responsibility to treat the young people as a great potential for our communities. My city, Pregrada, is one of the only 12 Croatian cities with the title City for Youth. And we are very committed to involving young people in decision-making process. Four years ago, we began a participatory budgeting process where young people could propose their own ideas and the best with the vote of young people to implement in our city area. Thank you. Petrus Varal, one minute. Dear colleagues, younger as well as older, I'd like to give us an example, a practice inspired by the European Summit of Regions and Cities in Marseille, where I participated with my colleague Barbara, a young member of the municipal council of our village, Rosnik, in Slovakia. Together, we initiated and promoted creation of the Youth Council in Rosnik, which is now, obviously, included in our municipality study. Members of this council can be young people aged from 15 to 25, and they are elected by the other young people. These elections are part of the election to the municipal self-government bodies, and we organized this election for the first time this year on the end of October. And today, we have first members of the Youth Council. This Youth Council has the competence to express itself and make proposals and cooperate with the village management in matters related to youth. And, for example, they are already invited to negotiation on the preparation of the village budget. Thank you. And other documents of the municipal council. We believe that they will use this space and they will mend it and contribute to improving the condition for the beliefs of young people. Tobias, go first, one minute. President Comissar. Thank you very much for encouraging this youth participation and policy-making. It's really important, but participation alone isn't enough. It needs to be lived on a daily basis and translated in action. Of course, we need to de-brossilize Europe. We fully support that. And we support the involvement of young people at all political levels, from the local level to the European level. Of course, ultimately, we need to vote in and reduce the voting age to 16. We need to make sure that youth can be represented at the local level and our regions as well. Let's strengthen regional parliaments as well as platforms for youth dialogue. And let's include young people in our parliaments. Let's strengthen our youth associations. We're doing that in Bavaria, for example, as well, and giving young people a voice there. Let's give young people a chance and the right to be able to exchange and get involved. And lastly, when it comes to young people, let's be careful as well when it comes to the burdens on young people, because the biggest burden is death. Oop, one minute. We have in Berlin the European Year of Youth. In Berlin, we use the European Year of Youth to develop initiatives with young people. I was a mentee, for example, for two young mentors. We had a specific program, a mentor program there that we developed. And our young mentors went to schools in the area and asked for the expectations and the needs of the young people when it came to the city and how they wanted it to look in the future. And one of the big things we heard was that they want Berlin to be climate neutral and they always also want education to be increased in schools as well. They expect high quality education. Mental health is a crucial point, particularly in the wake of the pandemic. They also want to see more preparation for entry into the labor market. And they also want to see progress on digitalization. Then finally, on participation that was really focused on as well. Young people want to have a democracy week at schools. They want to see voting rights reduced to 16 as well. I think that should be made possible during this legislative period, certainly for regional level anyway. One minute. It is that I'm going to give you some time. I think you very much, chair. I want to mention something that hasn't been underlined yet. And it's valid for young people like it is for everyone else. And that's that rights and duties have to be taken together. Yes, we have to provide support to young generations so that they can then carry out a responsible adult life and that they become more and more independent. But young people also have to do the work for them and for their children. They have to help their parents as well, of course. And then later on in life, they'll need a different type of help. And basically, we have to prepare them for real life. And that includes rights and duties. Patrick Schwarzkiefer, one minute. Thank you very much for being in the floor, President. In Hungary, teachers are raising their jobs due to political views. They need more respect and better wages. Average teachers only get about 500 euros a month. But there are several actions trying to draw attention to problems. One of the issues is the centralized school system. Now, the schoolgoers obviously experience all this. So what impact will that have on their participation in European politics in terms of their interests? How can they be encouraged to take part? Of course, the situation differs from one member's date to the other. And so it's difficult to address via EU documents and strategies. Of course, in terms of the content, I support that. But I'm skeptical about what it can actually be implemented. Thank you. Thank you. Aira Espera, your word for one minute. You have the floor for one minute. Dear President, thank you. I'm going to talk in Portuguese, please. I think that this charter is really important. And of course, what we're talking about here today is really important. If we don't transmit this into effective measures on the ground to actually allow young people to take part, then I don't think we'll be successful. And we'll have this European winter in terms of demography. We won't actually manage to deal with questions of employment and we'll lose talent. So we need to make sure that Europe is a community and make sure that young people don't believe – that young people believe in their future. Jobsin Reisch-Uberlaude, one minute. Yeah, thank you very much for giving me the floor. My region of Brandenburg, we support various different formats for the participation of young people, not just in this European year of youth. Now we have a long EU border as well, internal border. So I want to talk about one important aspect, and that's cross-border areas, where cross-border participation and exchange is really important for young people. It's essential. Young people in border regions need to be interconnected. This is the basis for a strong European future. And I think we could certainly strengthen how we promote this at the European level, not just at the academic level. Thank you. Thank you. Marie-Antoinette Mouper-Touille, one minute. Merci, Monsieur le Pris. Thank you, Chair. I'm president of the Assembly in Corsica, but also I represent a young youth association, even though I'm not that young anymore myself. This is over 60 young people from different political backgrounds, and they come together to discuss, produce opinions and reports on the executive body of Corsica, what it produces, and this isn't just on files relating to youth topics. Young people can also take the floor on social and political issues that affect their island. They work closely with the Commission and its plenary session, and that there really is a democracy in action. Looking at the future of Europe and the Mediterranean, well, very happy indeed that this charter be implemented now. Congratulations to the Committee of the Regions for the work done on this. Congratulations to the Rapporteur, and of course, congratulations to the young people who are involved and who are committed to the future of Europe. Thank you. Now this concludes our debate period. We're going to move on to vote. Vote on the opinion, and then Celia Marcula will conclude with her remarks at this point of our debate. Are we ready to vote? Let's start by voting amendment number one. Who votes against amendment number one? Amendment approved. Amendment number two. Who votes against amendment number two? Thank you. Abstention? Thank you. Who votes in favor of amendment number two? It's adopted. Amendment number three, it's an amendment from the Rapporteur. If adopted, amendment three falls. Who votes against amendment number three? Abstention? Amendment number three is approved, amendment three falls, amendment four R. Who votes against amendment four R? Abstention? Approved. Amendment four falls. Amendment five R. Who votes against amendment five R? Abstention? Approved. Amendment five falls. Amendment six R. Who votes against? Abstention? Amendment six R is approved, amendment six falls. vote on the opinion, who votes against the opinion, abstention, who votes in favour of the opinion. The opinion is adopted. Congratulations to the repertor. Now it's my pleasure to give the floor to Silvia Marcula for four minutes for a final statement. Thank you for the floor. It is the European year of youth, and as the outgoing president of the largest platform of youth organizations in the world, I often get asked, what is it like to be a young person in Europe today? And what a time it is indeed. Our friends in Ukraine, they've had to leave their homes to flee a war against Russia. Our friends in Belarus have had to go into exile because they believe in democracy. My friends in Sweden have faced violence against civil society simply because they have dared to raise their voices and stood up for their values. My friends in Spain are wondering, how many master's degrees do they need in order to land that entry-level job to pay the rent for the apartment they can't find yet. And my friends back home in Finland can't access mental health services because they're not suicidal enough. And that's why we're here today. And that's why the charter matters. It's to make sure that our voices are heard as a generation and that our generation is not left behind, to make sure that the young people of the present have a future. I want to thank the Committee of the Regents as an institution who has wholeheartedly embraced the spirit of the year of youth. And there's a lot of various initiatives where we have seen the support of the Committee of the Regents as the European youth forum. The opinion on the future of EU youth policy and the support for important youth-focused measures, they have already created a number of proposals for young people. Namely, to name a few, banning unpaid internships. The EU youth test, which we heard from Vice-President Schinas earlier, would be a game changer for young people. And it is an impact assessment tool that would see EU-level policy viewed through the lens of young Europeans. And we are also very happy to see the strong support from the Committee of the Regents in lowering the voting age to 16. The Committee of the Regents is a fundamental partner for us in the European youth capital project. And a new call for applications has been launched. Last week, the city of Lviv was awarded the European capital 2025 title, and we hope that you also wholeheartedly support their efforts in the difficult situation that they're facing. And of course, the European Charter on Youth and Democracy. It's an important step in the collaboration between the Committee of the Regents and young Europeans. The Charter aims to ensuring that young people at all levels can participate in making their lives and voices better and make sure that they are heard in democratic processes. The Charter is also a promising example of how the institutions can work with young people and youth organizations to co-create something together on an equal footing. And I would like to thank especially Kier MacCarthy for his excellent work in doing so. The Committee of the Regents, you have been an excellent support for us both in this process but throughout my mandate as president of the European of the European Forum. And it is time to bring the recommendations of this Charter into life to realize those youth-friendly democratic spaces and to deliver on the promises that have been made in the Charter for the young people who were involved but also for the young Europeans across the continent. And in doing so, I hope to see that once the European year of youth is over, the legacy of the year lasts beyond and young people are seen in the spaces of democracy in the way we deserve at all levels. Thank you. Well thank you so much. Now we have the signing ceremony and then we will have family photo including with our YEPS members that are at the end of the room and they will join us.