Euroopa Liit peab soodustama noorte osalust

Eesti Noorteühenduste Liidu (ENL) arvates peaks Eesti poliitika
Euroopa Liidus keskenduma rohkem noorte osaluse soodustamisele,
vabatahtliku töö propageerimisele ja erinevate liikmesriikide
haridussüsteemide tunnustamisele. ENLi välissuhete juhi Jaan Urbi
sõnul tuleb Euroopa Liidul soodustada noorte osalemist nii liidu enda
kui ka liikmesriikide valitsuste, kohaliku tasandi ja koolielu
otsustes. „Noortelt tuleb arvamust küsida neile sobival viisil“,
rõhutas Urb.

Teiseks tuleb ENLi arvates Euroopa Liidus senisest enam väärtustada
vabatahtlikku tööd ning tunnustada seda teadmiste ja oskuste
omandamise vaatenurgast võrdselt palgatööga. Vabatahtlikuna
töötajatele tuleb tagada sarnased õigused ja sotsiaalsed garantiid kui
on tavatöötajatel.

Kolmanda ettepanekuna esitab ENL erinevate liikmesriikide
haridustasemete tunnustamise põhimõtte. Euroopa Liidul tuleb töötada
selle nimel, et lisaks kõrgharidusele tunnustaksid liikmesriigid ka
teistes riikides omandatud põhi-, kesk- ja kutseharidust ning
mitteformaalset haridust.

Loetletud ettepanekud esitas Eesti Noorteühenduste Liit Riigikantseleile, kommenteerides dokumenti Eesti poliitika Euroopa Liidus.
Eesti Noorteühenduste Liit on noorteorganisatsioonide eestkosteühendus, mis ühendab 51 Eestis tegutsevat noorteorganisatsiooni.

Avasin Pärnus UBC (Union of the Baltic Cities) noortekonverentsi "Under the Surface"

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen!
Good young people!

I hope you have already gotten to know each other, especially the youth as you came here yesterday and had all evening to do that. And I do hope that you are not too tired;)

Firstly, let me express my pleasure of being here and having an opportunity to say a few words.

Secondly, I am honoured that this event takes place in Pärnu, the most beautiful town in Estonia in my mind. Hereby I also greet you all by the city of Pärnu and especially by the young people living here.

Co-operation, youth voice, youth participation and involvement in decision-making processes – all of them are the issues very often spoken about at almost all levels of the society. But what is still there to be done? Is there anything at all to be done? Why does the youth need so much attention? After all we are just an interest group...

Yet, the Estonian National Youth Council where I also belong to has declared this year the year of participation of young people, launched a big campaign, organised and is still organising different events concerning the opportunities for youngsters to express their thoughts. There has to be something then...

And yes, there is! The answer is simple – we are the future for all the countries, some day we will be in charge and thus it is essential that we learn from the very beginning how to participate, how to change something, how to make our voices heard. After all we want to be good citizens.

More to that, one cannot be alone, „a man is not an island,“ said John Dunne once and today he is even more right. In the conditions of globalising world the mutual understanding and co-operation especially between close regions is of high importance. Thus it is so important that the Baltic Sea Region struggles for even closer co-operation at all levels considering the youth as well. This is the place where we can learn tolerance, being active and take part in decison-making processes without forgetting the fact that we are young and want to have fun, too. So, we need to be even more creative to have all that.

I do hope that I answered the questions raised before – yes, there is much to discuss, yes, we want to participate and yes, we want to co-operate!

I wish you all the best and have fun in Pärnu!