A plea for action on jobs is being sent to John Major, and the other 13 European Union Prime Ministers, from young people throughout Europe.
| We hope the ideas presented here will flow down to national and regional levels. |
Our Europe Is What We Make It, a gathering of 217 young socialists, including 62 British representatives. In Brussels last week, was an inaugural meeting to discuss the future of the European Union.
The resulting communiqu, A Letter from Brussels, will list the issues most important to the delegates and ask EU premiers to provide solutions within the context of the European parliament.
We are young, but we worry about the same issues as the rest of the population, said Andrew Pakes, 23, from Humberside. Some of the issues are more pertinent to us because they are the agenda young people tend to drive forward, such as peace and job training.
With up to half the 19 million unemployed in the EU under 30, the most important issue for the British delegation was employment and training. Suggested action included diverting money from the agricultural fund to the social fund to create more jobs.
Political parties don't often make it possible for young people to become involved in politics, especially under the age of 18, said Nick Holden from Leicester. These people then don't see the relevance of getting involved in politics.
Delegates had mixed feelings on whether they were likely to be taken seriously by the heads of states. If it changes something, that would be very nice, but I'm not so sure it will happen, said Wolfgang Eggar, 22, from Austria.
We hope the ideas presented here will flow down to national and regional levels, said Pauline Green, Labour MEP for London North and leader of the European parliament's Socialist group, which sponsored the conference.
About the team
This article was produced by editors Jamie Burnett, 17, Sharon ODea, 15, Nurul Ali, 15 and reporters Selina Gibson, 13 and Abeyna Jones, 13. It was published in The Observer.
