Frequently Asked Questions on European Youth Forum

The aim of this FAQ is to address the most common questions concerning the European Youth Forum (YFJ) and the involvement of Erasmus Student Network.

1.What is European Youth Forum?
2.Which organisations are members of the Forum?
3.What is the mission of YFJ?
4.Who runs the European Youth Forum?
5.What is the structure of YFJ?
6.Who are the people in the Bureau and Secretariat?
7.Where does YFJ get funding from?
8.Can the European Youth Forum fund some of our projects and activities?
9.What does YFJ do in very concrete terms?
10.What are the areas of YFJ’s interest?
11.What kind of membership does ESN have in this forum?
12.Is there a membership fee for member organisations?
13.Who from ESN can attend European Youth Forum meetings? What kind of activities does YFJ organise?
14.What kind of activities does YFJ organise?
15.Why do you refer to it as YFJ, rather than EYF?
16.Hm... and what is EYF?
17.How does ESN benefit from YFJ?
18.How can I get involved?
19.Where can I find out more?

1. What is European Youth Forum?

The European Youth Forum is an international organisation established by national youth councils and international non-governmental youth organisations in Europe, such as ESN. It endeavours to serve the interests of young people from all over Europe, promoting their active participation in the construction of a common Europe. Working with international institutions, mainly the European Union, the Council of Europe and the United Nations, it serves to channel the flow of information and opinions between young people and decision-makers.

2. Which organisations are members of the Forum?

The European Youth Forum is made up of national youth councils (NYCs) and international non-governmental youth organisations (INGYOs), federations in themselves bringing together tens of millions of young people from all European countries. These two groups are called the Two Pillars of YFJ. ESN belongs to the INGYO pillar along with e.g. AEGEE, ESU, Scouts, WAGGGS, EFIL and others. On the other hand, organisations like Alliansi (Finland), British Youth Council, Forum Nazionale dei Giovani (Italy) or Deutsches Nationalkomitee für Internationale Jugendarbeit (Germany) and many others belong to the NYC pillar. At the moment, there are in total 99 member organisations.

3. What is the mission of YFJ?

The European Youth Forum is an independent, democratic, youth-led platform, representing national youth councils and international youth organisations from across Europe. The Youth Forum works to empower young people to participate actively in society to improve their own lives, by representing and advocating their needs and interests and those of their organisations.

4. Who runs the European Youth Forum?

The Secretary General is responsible for the day-to-day running of the European Youth Forum Secretariat. For political (strategic) matters, though, there is aBureau composed of a President, 2 Vice-Presidents and 8 members who have the political responsibility for the European Youth Forum in between statutory meetings (General Assembly and Council of Members).

5. What is the structure of YFJ?

Member Organisations (MOs): this is what YFJ is composed of. All YFJ bodies (apart from the Secretariat) are composed of the people who come from the member organisations.
General Assembly (GA): YFJ statutory body composed of delegates of Member Organisations with greatest power. Meets once in 2 years, elects the Bureau, CBMA, and FCC, amends Statutes, accepts new Member Organisations, defines YFJ agenda, adopts policies, adopts budget, etc. At GAs, each organisation has 2 delegates.
Council of Members (COMEM): YFJ body composed of delegates of Member Organisations. Meets twice a year (Spring and Autumn COMEM), adopts policies, etc. At COMEMs, each MO can delegate one person.
Bureau: represents the Forum, runs the Forum between two meetings of the General Assembly, selects Working Groups, implements the policies determined by the Council of Members in accordance with the guidelines of the General Assembly.
Secretariat: prepares the work of the statutory bodies. It carries out the daily work of the Forum under the responsibility of the Secretary General.
Working Groups: appointed by the Bureau, Working Groups are non-permanent working structures and their role is to offer their expertise and to assist the Bureau and the Secretariat in the main working areas of YFJ. Members of the Working Groups come from MOs and currently there are five Working Groups, each consisting of eight members: Education, Participation and Youth Policy Mainstreaming, Youth Work Development, Human Rights, and Employment and Social Affairs. ESN has a member in the Working Group on Education.
Financial Control Commission (FCC): body responsible for the internal audit of the finances of the Forum.
Consultative Body on Membership Application (CBMA): follows membership applications by potential members and reports on it to the Bureau.

6. Who are the people in the Bureau and Secretariat?

For the full list of Bureau and Secretariat members you can check YFJ website. The difference is that the Bureau is elected by GA, has a two-year mandate whereas Secretariat is not elected but full-time employees of the Forum.

7. Where does YFJ get funding from?

The European Youth Forum gets an annual grant from the European Commissionfollowing a decision by the Council and the European Parliament. It also receives a small coordinating grant from the Council of Europe. The accounts are audited by internal auditors elected among the members and by an external auditing company as well as by the financial services of the European Commission.

8. Can the European Youth Forum fund some of our projects and activities?

No, the European Youth Forum is not a grant-awarding organisation.

9. What does YFJ do in very concrete terms?

YFJ:

Provides a space for organisations to develop in a sustainable way. It offers strategic support for capacity building, networking and the dissemination of good practice.
Voices the concerns of its member organisations into the political agenda of governmental and European institutions.
Produces policies and positions, which are based on the opinions, experiences and expertise of young people from all over Europe.

10. What are the areas of YFJ’s interest?

Areas of YFJ’s work and interest are developed by, of course, its member organisations and they actually reflect interests of those organisations. In overall, there are several most important areas in the YFJ work:

Education
Youth Policy in Europe
Employment and Social Inclusion
Human Rights and Equality
Sustainable Development
Health
Training
Mobility
Global and Regional Youth Cooperation
Development of National Youth Policies

ESN is particularly interested in mobility, education and additionally involunteering, training, and similar. So far, this has been decided by ESN International Board.

11. What kind of membership does ESN have in this forum?

ESN is a member organisation which applied for joining YFJ in April 2007. As a rule, a new organisation cannot be a Full Member until it has spent at least 2 years as aCandidate Member, which is what ESN is now. A Candidate Member has all the rights as a Full Member, except for the right to vote. Apart from Full and Candidate Members there are also Observer Members. ESN applied for Full Membership in April 2009 and if CBMA finishes all the necessary work before November 2009, the COMEM will then vote on whether ESN should or not be a Full Member.

Types of member organisations in YFJ:

12. Is there a membership fee for member organisations?

Yes. There is an annual membership fee and it varies depending on the membership type. ESN pays EUR 1500 for the membership per year while being a Candidate and this amount will be slightly higher once we turn a Full member. In return, ESN is reimbursed for all travel and living costs of our representatives on YFJ meetings, whether statutory or not.

13. Who from ESN can attend European Youth Forum meetings?

Delegates representing the member organisations of the European Youth Forum can attend YFJ meetings (COMEM, GA, or various meetings, seminars, trainings throughout year), meaning a person appointed by the ESN International Board or CNR.

14. What kind of activities does YFJ organise?

YFJ organises conferences, training activities, information days, hearings with institutions, and similar. For information on upcoming events, you can checkwww.esn.org or ask the Board or ESN YFJ Liaison Office at yfj@esn.org.

15. Why do you refer to it as YFJ, rather than EYF?

YFJ stands for Youth Forum Jeunesse - an official name of the Youth Forum. These two acronyms should not be confused because they represent two different things.

16. Hm... and what is EYF?

EYF stands for European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe. Its purpose is to provide financial support to such European youth activities which serve for the promotion of peace, understanding and co-operation in a spirit of respect for the Council of Europe's fundamental values such as human rights, democracy, tolerance and solidarity.

17. How does ESN benefit from YFJ?

Case No.1:
Putting forward our agenda
As other Member Organisations, ESN can influence the agenda of the Forum, i.e. we can push our priorities into the priorities of the Forum. In more concrete terms, when, for example, General Assembly decides on the YFJ Work Plan for the following two years, we can put forward issues that are of particular interest for ESN, like more space for the issues related to student mobility, recognition in (higher) education, volunteering, or anything else we find important at that moment. Once we succeed in getting the support of GA (read: Member Organisations of YFJ) for topics that concern us it means that YFJ will deal with it more in the following years (lobbying decision makers, for instance).

Case No.2:
Experience and know-how exchange with other organisations
There are a lot of things that ESN does that most of other organisations are not familiar with and that could be useful for them to know (for example, how we use ESNGalaxy to bridge International and Local level, or the data we collect through ESNSurvey). At the same time, other organisations have knowledge and experience ESN might benefit from once we establish contact with their representatives in YFJ meeting.

Case No.3:
Easier excess to decision makers (EU institutions)
If we are very unhappy with a line in the Lifelong Learning Programme Decision, we can ask people from YFJ Bureau (Bureau Member responsible for education, for instance) for help in approaching Members of the European Parliament who can bring this issue up in the European Parliament and question the European Commission. In general, with the support of YFJ, we can more easily establish contact with people from EU institutions that might be relevant for us.

Case No.4:
Easier access to grants
Have you ever heard of European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe (here, question 16)? Do you know that people from YFJ are directly involved in the decisions on which organisations and which projects will get grants? In the Council of Europe there is a body called Advisory Council, which has a say in this grant allocation, where YFJ (General Assembly) directly appoints people from Member Organisations. Practically, we can nominate people from ESN at GA and lobby for them to be elected! And get more grants approved for the ESN!

Case No.5:
Knowledge acquisition and capacity building
YFJ Pool of Trainers is a team composed of people from different member organisations who have trainer experience in various fields (like: project management, organisational development, fundraising, intercultural learning, antidiscrimination, etc.). Any YFJ Member Organisation can use services of the Pool.

Case No.6:
Promotion of ESN
YFJ is a perfect platform for the promotion of what we do. Promoting ESN to other organisations in the Forum is definitely contributing to the overall visibility of ESN among young people of Europe.

Case No. 7:
Personal experience
You want to be active and integrated in European life? The YFJ forms an excellent opportunity to be and act as European. You can attend conferences, seminars, meetings and raise the concerns of international students. You can see how decisions are made and accumulate first-hand knowledge about Europe and how it works.

18. How can I get involved?

If you are particularly interested in what YFJ does and if you are motivated to help ESN be more successful within YFJ framework, you can always write to the President of ESN International Board.