ESN in European Youth Forum

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

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.

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 (Association des Etats Généraux des Etudiants de l'Europe), WAGGGS (World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts), EFIL (European Federation for Intercultural Learning) 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.

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.

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 a bureau composed of a president, two vice-presidents, and eight members, who have the political responsibility for the European Youth Forum between statutory meetings (General Assembly and Council of Members).

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.

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 the secretariat is not elected and the secretariat members are full-time employees of the forum.

Where does YFJ get funding from?

The European Youth Forum gets an annual grant from the European Commission following 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.

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

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

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.

It voices the concerns of its member organisations into the political agenda of governmental and European institutions.

It produces policies and positions, which are based on the opinions, experiences and expertise of young people from all over Europe.

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 volunteering, and training.

What kind of membership does ESN have in this forum?

ESN applied for joining the YFJ in April 2007. ESN was a Candidate Member for two years, and was approved as a Full Member in the Spring COMEM 2010. Apart from Full and Candidate Members there are also Observer Members. 

Types of member organisations in YFJ:

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.

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 the year) meaning a person appointed by the ESN International Board or CNR.

What kind of activities does YFJ organise?

YFJ organises conferences, training activities, information days, hearings with institutions, etc. For information on upcoming events, you can check www.esn.org or ask the liaison officers at liaison@esn.org.

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.

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.

How does ESN benefit from YFJ?

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).

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 ESN Galaxy to bridge the international and local level, or the data we collect through ESN Survey). At the same time, other organisations have knowledge and experience ESN might benefit from once we establish contact with their representatives in YFJ meeting.

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.

Easier access to grants 
Have you ever heard of European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe? 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!

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.). 

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.

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.

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, contact our liaison officers.