The Advisory Council on Youth is the non-governmental partner in the co-management structure which establishes the standards and work priorities of the Council of Europe’s youth sector and makes recommendations for future priorities, programmes and budgets.
It is made up of 30 representatives from youth NGOs and networks in Europe and its main task is to advise the Committee of Ministers on all questions relating to youth. Specifically, the Advisory Council helps to ensure youth policies are mainstreamed into the Council of Europe's programme of activities by providing opinions and proposals to all of the Organisation's bodies. It also ensures that young people are involved in other activities of the Council of Europe and promotes the policies beyond the Organisation.
Irina Veselinović will be replacing Patrícia Gonçalves as the representative of the Erasmus Student Network at the Advisory Council on Youth. Irina studies Education Science at the University of Belgrade and is a former Vice-Chair of ESN’s International Committee for Education. Currently finishing her mandate as the President of ESN Serbia, Irina became ESN’s Liaison Officer towards the Lifelong Learning Platform in November last year.
The new mandate 2020-2021 of the Advisory Council (AC) on Youth of the Council of Europe has officially started. Irina Veselinović, on behalf of the Erasmus Student Network, will be working on the following portfolios in the next two years:
Mobility - European Platform on Learning Mobility (CoE - EU youth partnership)
The European Platform on Learning Mobility in the youth field (EPLM) is an open, participatory space for exchange and cooperation between practitioners, researchers and policymakers organised under the EU-CoE youth partnership.
The EPLM focuses on the learning mobility of young people and of practitioners in the youth field. EPLM works on promoting learning mobility in the framework of lifelong learning, aiming to increase participation, active citizenship, intercultural learning and dialogue, individual competency development and employability of young people.
Irina will be one of the members of the Steering Group which guides the EPLM for a certain period of time. The members of the Steering Group represent a wide variety of stakeholders, programmes and formats in the field of learning mobility, a balanced mixture of the respective fields of work and regional diversity within Europe.
Cooperation of the Conference of INGOs
The INGO (international non-governmental organisations) Conference is the body representing civil society in the Council of Europe. It is made up of 316 INGOs (ESN also being one of them) which hold a participatory status and meet in plenary meetings which are an occasion for dialogue with the bodies of the Council of Europe and for exchange among its members. It is the only assembly of NGOs playing an institutional role in an international intergovernmental organisation.
Irina will be assisting the board of the Conference with their Youth delegates programme throughout her mandate, in order to ensure that the youth perspective is represented within the Conference.
Working group on Quality Labels for Youth Centres
The European Youth Centres (EYCs) in Strasbourg and Budapest are permanent structures for the implementation of the Council of Europe's youth policy. They are international training and meeting centres with residential facilities, hosting most of the Council of Europe's youth sector's activities, including some of ESN’s study sessions such as the Gender Check-Up during autumn 2019.
The Council of Europe Quality Label for Youth Centres provides an opportunity for youth centres with a structured relationship to a public authority to benefit from the Council of Europe's approach to youth work and youth policy. This project was initiated by the European Steering Committee for Youth (CDEJ) which brings together representatives of ministries or bodies responsible for youth matters from the 50 States Parties to the European Cultural Convention. Irina will support the representatives of CDEJ and EYCs in the process of assessment of the Youth Centers to be awarded the label.
Finally, she will also be following the work of the CDPPE - The Steering Committee for Educational Policy and Practice which is a body that oversees the Council of Europe’s programmes in the field of education and advises the Committee of Ministers on education issues.
You can contact Irina directly through her email: [email protected]
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