On April 27, on our Instagram account @youthrussia we hosted a live stream with Andrea Ugrinoska, the newly elected Chair of the Advisory Council on Youth of the Council of Europe. Andrea shared some insights about youth policy implementation in Europe, unique co-management system of the Council of Europe, youth participation, cooperation between Russia and the Council of Europe in the field of youth policy, and her vision of the Advisory Council’s work for the next two years.
Andrea compared her path to the Advisory Council on Youth of the Council of Europe with climbing a ladder. She started her engagement in youth politics from a student organization in North Macedonia, her native country. When she moved to London she started working for the International Federation of Liberal Youth. She was representing them in the European Youth Forum and then through the European Youth Forum she stood for elections for the Advisory Council on Youth of the Council of Europe. This is already her second mandate. During her first mandate she worked in the Bureau of the Advisory Council, where she coordinated work related to priority focus group 3, which is responsible for inclusive and peaceful societies. “Only being 2 years in the Bureau I got the confidence, knowledge, and experience needed to join as a Chair for my second and final mandate”, admitted Andrea.
The best thing about the Council of Europe is its progressive and unique co-management system. According to Andrea, it is the only system that puts young people on an equal leverage with decision-makers and it is the only way to include young people in policy-making and decision-making.
The whole youth movement around the world is striving to create spaces where young people can be heard and where young people can contribute meaningfully with their ideas. But not a lot of these spaces are systems that actually take into consideration what young people say. Andrea believes that to make youth participation meaningful, the decision-makers should consider the opinions of young people and then give them feedback on how they implemented the things that they heard.
She explained further the idea behind the co-management system. Twice a year 30 activists sitting in the Advisory Council come together with around 50 representatives of the member states of the Council of Europe who represent institutions responsible for youth policy implementation in their respective countries. Together they form a Joint Council on Youth. During those meetings they decide the budget of the Youth Department of the Council of Europe, how it’s going to be distributed, the priorities that are going to lead the strategic work of the organization. They do external missions, advocate for the values they stand for, they co-draft recommendations and so on. And all of this is done based on the principle of consensus. That means that if one single member of the Joint Council disagrees with something that is being put forward then the policy will not pass. “Consensus is a very interesting method that we use because it forces the group to discuss until it arrives to a common solution”, said Andrea.
Answering the question about the main aims of the Council of Europe’s youth policy, Andrea explained that they give recommendations to governments in terms of youth policy development: on youth work, on young people access to rights, on support of young refugees, etc. “We try to spot a gap in society and then fill it in with recommendations to the governments on how and what they should do to advance these aspects”, – Andrea said. She added that they also attend policy missions. For example, if a government decides to work on its youth policy or if they need extra expertise in this field, they invite the Advisory Council on Youth of the Council of Europe to visit the country, analyze its youth policy and give recommendations or draft policy documents. Andrea noted that the youth sector changes quite a lot. To keep track of these changes and to adapt its policies the Council of Europe conducts various surveys on a regular basis.
As a newly elected Chair Andrea shared the key aspects of her vision for the Advisory Council of Youth’s two-year mandate:
- to launch something new, big and relevant for everyone (something similar to the No Hate Speech movement)
- to increase cooperation with the European Youth Forum
- to establish closer ties with the United Nations structures
- to “Youth up” the institution of the Council of Europe (the PACE, the Congress, the Court, etc.)
- to work extensively with the national youth councils
- to work closer with permanent representations of member-states to the Council of Europe.
Speaking of the cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Council of Europe in the field of youth policy, Andrea noted that this cooperation was initiated by the Russian side. It has been going on for many years already and has proven to be a very successful one. “We have cooperation with the Russian Federation, we have one with Ukraine, and we have similar cooperation with Azerbaijan. But none of them are as substantial and elaborate as the one with the Russian Federation. It is the first one that was created, one of the ones that has been going on for a really long time and has the most results”, she noted.
Throughout the live stream, Andrea also answered the questions from the viewers. Below you can read the answers to the questions that were not answered during the interview.
1. What is the situation with the pandemic in your country?
The UK has rather loose measures compared to the rest of the world in the sense that it does not have a full lock down and no police hours so far. However that proves to not be so effective as the number of infected and deaths is rising to unprecedented levels. However, the day to day life has not changed too much if you worked in an office before, as everything has just transferred online. Commercial and hospitality business remain closed.
2. How is gender equality in youth policy supported in European countries? What programs exist there?
Each European country has its own way of implementing gender sensitive youth policies, and measures which boost gender equality. The Council of Europe supports member states in doing this by using various tools such as Committee of Ministers recommendations to member states, intergovernmental activities, setting of standards etc. More information on this can be found here.
3. Is volunteering a priority direction for your organization? And if so what are the plans for the development of the volunteer movement in Europe?
The Council of Europe does not work actively on volunteering as a component of youth work, though it’s a very important one. In the Advisory Council on Youth of the Council of Europe we are all volunteers and therefore finding a way how to support volunteers is an integral part of our work.
On the other side, the European Union works much closer to managing volunteers through their Erasmus programs, such as the European Solidarity Corps.
4. Which department of CoE is the best?
Tam tam tam…the Youth Department!☺ expected right?
5. With Corona hitting hard are you planning any strategies for stronger digital communications/accessibility to the AC?
Yes absolutely. We’re currently examining ways of how we can transfer most of the work that has been ongoing before the pandemic online. And as such a lot of the meetings and events have been transferred online so follow our social media pages and join us!
6. Banana bread recipe ☺
I used the one from Dominique Ansel, available here!
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Watch full interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YNUIzZuzjs