1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,000
What do young people think of Europe? As part of Youth Week 2005, the European Commission

2
00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:12,000
Directorate-General for Education and Culture interviewed more than 24,000 young people.

3
00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:17,000
Although 2005 is ending on a mixed note, a lot can be learned from the way young people

4
00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:22,000
view things. Despite being described as the Euro-generation, they don't identify with

5
00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:27,000
Europe much more than their parents do. Only 58% of them feel European, as against free

6
00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:36,000
54% of the population as a whole. Nevertheless, some young people have decided to be committed

7
00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:42,000
Europeans. Stefan Carrara is president of Cafébabel.com Brussels, a European news magazine

8
00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:47,000
available on the Internet in six languages. Its aim is to contribute to the emergence

9
00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:52,000
of a European public opinion. The unusual thing about this magazine is that it's produced

10
00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:58,000
by young volunteers in different cities. Apart from this editorial aspect, the network

11
00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:03,000
also organises debates, convinced that young people have a role to play in the Europe of

12
00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:05,000
tomorrow.

13
00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:10,000
Young people have a part to play. Our ambition is really to bring them to Europe and tell

14
00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:16,000
them, OK, it's your Europe. What we want to do is, in a sense, to give them the keys to

15
00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:20,000
understanding this Europe, so that they can take it in hand, really get to know it and

16
00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:25,000
discuss together, at a European level, what we're actually going to do with this Europe

17
00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:28,000
of ours.

18
00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:34,000
Vanessa Witkowski belongs to Cafébabel.com. She's what's called a babelienne.

19
00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:39,000
To be babelienne, first of all, you have to be convinced that Europe is a fantastic project,

20
00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:45,000
that it's full of opportunity. You have to be open to other cultures. You have to like

21
00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:51,000
talking, discussion and debates on different subjects. What is essential for me is to create

22
00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:57,000
contact, to say to young people, these politicians are not inaccessible. And I think that we've

23
00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:02,000
already come a long way down the road. If we manage to bring this European elite to

24
00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:10,000
the level of young people, we've opened a door.

25
00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:14,000
This evening, Vanessa has a meeting with other babeliennes to talk about potential subjects

26
00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:19,000
for future debates.

27
00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:25,000
There's a new report from Eurobarometer, which is quite interesting, called Youth Takes the

28
00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:30,000
Floor. And there are some questions which are really pertinent, that I think we could

29
00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:37,000
use in our upcoming debates. For example, when asked what should be the priority for

30
00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:47,000
the European Union, young people in the new member states answered, fighting unemployment.

31
00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:53,000
And I think that that's quite revealing, compared to 48% of the old member states, who take

32
00:02:53,000 --> 00:03:00,000
the same view. Perhaps you have an idea. Here are the stats. What do you think?

33
00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:04,000
The stats, as Vanessa calls them, are from a study undertaken by the European Commission

34
00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:08,000
Directorate General for Education and Culture. The report highlights the fact that young

35
00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:13,000
people think employment should be one of the main priorities for the Union. Concrete evidence

36
00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:17,000
of this is to be found in Malta, where the European Commission Youth Programme supports

37
00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:21,000
a project involving five young unemployed people.

38
00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:27,000
I was unemployed. I met with Sean, and we were with the same ideas, and we decided to

39
00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:36,000
do a project. Then we contacted ETC, and they helped us find the other three candidates.

40
00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:41,000
The local employment agency in Malta, the ETC, introduced them to Brian and Clint, two

41
00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:46,000
IT experts who supervised the project. They recruited three other unemployed youngsters

42
00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:52,000
and suggested taking the initial idea a little further, by adding a community dimension.

43
00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:59,000
The final idea for the project was a portal on Valletta, including also a part on NGOs

44
00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:06,000
located in Valletta. The NGOs are non-government organisations which don't make profit, so

45
00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:11,000
they're non-profit as well. So this project will help them have a website without paying

46
00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:20,000
for it. It will also aid these young people, enhance their skills in web design and programming,

47
00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:24,000
so that they will have better prospects for employment in the future.

48
00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:33,000
So, following your idea for a portal centred around Valletta, what we're going to do is

49
00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:36,000
we're going to get a list of NGOs from the Valletta Local Council.

50
00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:42,000
Basically, the project will be tackled like this. You have to first contact the NGOs and

51
00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:48,000
give them information about the project. You will then wait for them to give you feedback

52
00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:55,000
about to see who is interested to join the portal. The project will have two groups,

53
00:04:55,000 --> 00:05:00,000
which are the designers and the programmers. Now Brian will explain to you the role of

54
00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:01,000
the designers.

55
00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:06,000
So they offered their services to several NGOs and are going to create a web version

56
00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:09,000
of the Lane in Sewan newspaper, published by one of them.

57
00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:13,000
Tell me what content you want to be displayed on the website.

58
00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:20,000
It has been long since our overseas subscribers had asked us to put our paper on the website.

59
00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:24,000
See? And at the moment, at that time, we couldn't afford it.

60
00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:29,000
For these young Maltese, the project offers an extraordinary opportunity, which helps

61
00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:31,000
them envisage a professional future.

62
00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:38,000
In Malta, there is a lot of competition in the computer sector. There are too few vacancies,

63
00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:45,000
too many applicants. And the more the experience and the more the qualifications you have,

64
00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:52,000
of course, the more chance you beat competition. And of course, through the experience and

65
00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:57,000
things I learned from this project, it will definitely help me in finding a fixed job

66
00:05:57,000 --> 00:05:58,000
in web development.

67
00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:04,000
In Europe, several thousand projects like this receive support every year from the Youth

68
00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:09,000
Programme. Initiatives are encouraged in various domains, such as intercultural exchanges,

69
00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:13,000
volunteering or undertaking projects at the local level.

70
00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:21,000
Thanks to this project, we advanced and excelled our skills, thanks to this project.

71
00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:26,000
Having created this website looks very good on their CVs and has given them the practical

72
00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:30,000
experience which seems to be so crucial to potential employers.

73
00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:35,000
After less than six months, the future for these five young people looks totally different.

74
00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:40,000
The Maltese authorities think the experiment deserves to be repeated. But although employment

75
00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:44,000
seems to be the number one priority for young people in Europe, it's interesting to look

76
00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:46,000
at other perceptions of Europe among young people.

77
00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:48,000
Back to Brussels.

78
00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:54,000
And that's the real issue. Because asked if they agree that I'm interested in what is

79
00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:59,000
going on in politics and current affairs, finally only 46% said that they were interested

80
00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:04,000
in Europe. So you were talking about dialogue and I completely agree. I don't know, perhaps

81
00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:05,000
Eike, what do you think?

82
00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:12,000
Very few young Europeans feel themselves as European only. They usually see the European

83
00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:18,000
identity as a complementary, you know, identity to their own nationality.

84
00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:25,000
Well, but we don't need them to feel European only and nobody wants anybody to give up its

85
00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:32,000
national or regional identity. I mean, I think it's quite positive already that, I mean,

86
00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:38,000
that most of them seem to have like the European identity as a second identity, like they have

87
00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:43,000
it, so that they still feel like they belong to something.

88
00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:47,000
Yes, young people feel they belong to something, but they seem to find it difficult to take

89
00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:53,000
a real interest. Only 55% of young people feel concerned by European politics, as against

90
00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:59,000
67% of their elders. Even fewer of them feel involved. In fact, only four young people

91
00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:04,000
in ten have the impression that any notice is taken of their opinion. This was also discovered

92
00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:09,000
to be true in Malta, when a lot of Maltese responded to an internet-based research study

93
00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:11,000
among 4,000 young Europeans.

94
00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:18,000
To be honest with you, concerning the issue, up to date, they are not aware that the EU

95
00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:23,000
can offer a consultation process where they can give input about policy-making, about

96
00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:29,000
policy formulation concerning employment, housing, social inclusion, all the issues

97
00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:35,000
that affect their everyday living. They have the opportunity and the mechanism to give

98
00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:40,000
their input and to affect the outcome. But I wonder if young people today are aware of

99
00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:41,000
such opportunities.

100
00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:48,000
I think it's lack of information. The information that they are getting is just about EU funds

101
00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:54,000
and EU grants and all these kinds of things, like EU as a bank. They are not seeing it

102
00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:59,000
as an opportunity to put out their opinions, where they can even contribute, whatever it

103
00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:05,000
is. If it's something they don't agree, they can just say, I don't agree with it, and it

104
00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:06,000
will be heard.

105
00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:12,000
We shouldn't underestimate the power of one. We can, in fact, implement changes in our

106
00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:18,000
countries and within the European Union, because if we really do believe in something, we really

107
00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:19,000
can.

108
00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:38,000
For more UN videos visit www.un.org

109
00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:08,000
www.un.org