Dear All,
Happy new Year! And what a year we have in front of us!
As you know, 2022 has been officially recognised, following the announcement of the President Ursula Von der Leyen, as the European Year of Youth, «a year dedicated to those who have dedicated so much to others», as the European Commission said.
We also welcome our colleagues from Tirana, the National Youth Congress of Albania in cooperation with the Municipality of Tirana has been designed by the European Youth Forum as the “European Youth Capital” for 2022 (EYC 2022), congratulations first and good luck for this challenge coinciding also with the European Year of Youth (EYY2022).
I am sure this is for the Fund for Youth Employment, and in general for the Regional Funds thus including our brothers and sisters of the Regional Cooperation, a great opportunity. I am sure that we will create innovative and fruitful collaborations, starting form positive insights, best practices and success stories. The reason is simple: for 12 months, our main target – Youth – will be celebrated around Europe with initiatives, events (hopefully in presence), debates, etc.
I believe that we must run and be on the crest of this wave, we have to be an active part!
Therefore, I am of the opinion that we should start having a look at the Youth Portal, opened some days ago, not only to see what is already there, but especially to understand together how we can go beyond. Not because we are better than others. Simply because our Projects needs to continue being further stimulated, also by external hints, as this is.
I also totally agree with the point of view of some commissioners, which underlined that Youth is the generation that suffered the most during this never-ending pandemic. We all have been suffering, among lockdowns, restrictions, lack of socialisation, etc. But I think that younger people have been a little more deprived of their serenity than ‘us grown-ups’. Perhaps simply because they lacked someone who could lead them. We have all made efforts, but we have all been limited. And maybe we have not always managed, in the difficulty of the moment, to give the youngest really positive stimuli and hints. I don’t think it’s our fault, because everything has stopped. But now it’s time to restart, and we can, and want to, do it great. We all deserve to get back our positiveness (I am not talking about the result of a Covid test… ) and the entire Fund Operator is convinced that we have in our hands a big possibility, that is why we are ready to support all of you.
Our Online Magazines, for example, have always been a tool, and they can be an active mean you can use for free for that occasion. What’s better than having a free place to make your initiatives known and disseminated? So, please, if you have any idea, we are ready to exploit our Mags for that.
Of course, I don’t want to forget the rest. We are almost ready to define with you the next steps, especially in terms of editorial lines and topics, but at the same time, we can reason together to understand how we could create a direct link, since as I already said, finding solution for Youth is already our main activity (and objective).
Talking about this specific issue, as you see it is all linked together. As per our Friends, starting from our Tom, we have asked to follow the main theme we are promoting, but you can simply read his words to understand the sense of my reasoning when I say that we are not going “off topic”. At the contrary: as anyone can see leafing through the pages, it is all in line. Therefore, as usual, my compliments to our Projects for their engagement. Some of them are increasing the number of contributions and that is exactly what we expected. This means that our Mag is an important tool for dissemination.
I am sure we will have other occasion to exchange our thoughts about this themes… we will shortly come back to you! In this YE MAG you may found the Press Release of the EC related to the EC initiative of the EYY2022, a first presentation of the Tirana EYC 2022 and other interesting articles from external supporters and the ones form our “YE family” projects. To conclude please save the date 28, 29 and 30 March 2022; we will be shortly back to you in providing for more information about the proposed activities “Empowering Young People Across Europe”.
For the moment, I am leaving you to our Mag, but also remembering you to start having a look here: https://europa.eu/youth/year-of-youth_en.
Gian Luca Bombarda
The Fund Director
