On May 4, on our Instagram account @youthrussia we hosted a live stream with Ville Majamaa, an elected Vice-President of the European Youth Forum (YFJ), which is the largest umbrella organization for youth NGOs in Europe. We talked about youth policy implementation in Europe, youth rights, Russia – EU relations and lots of other interesting topics.
In the beginning of the session Ville shared how he started working for the European Youth Forum. His first event under the brand of the YFJ took place in 2011, where he was representing the National Youth Council of Finland. In 2017 he was elected as a YFJ Board member and two years later as a Vice-President. Ville compared his work in the YFJ with a full-time volunteering job which makes one invest all the free time in it.
As for youth policy implementation in Europe, Ville explained that there are different youth policy frameworks but the youth policy is not decided on the European level. Most of the decisions are taken on the local level and then the national level comes in as a coordinating stage. He added that when it comes to youth policy in Europe there are two main institutions – the Council of Europe and the European Union. Both of these institutions have their own youth strategies but the national governments implement them on a voluntary basis.
During the stream Ville also addressed the issue of youth rights. He started his explanation with the term “human rights”, which is a familiar term for everyone. Ville stressed that there is quite a lot age-based discrimination even in Europe. He emphasized that the idea of youth rights lies in the fact that the same rights that are already enshrined in Universal Declaration of Human Rights should be also applicable to young people. “We are not asking for new rights or different rights. We are asking for young people to have access to the same rights”, Ville stressed.
Ville briefed the audience on the mission of the YFJ and its activities. “We aim to be the voice of young people in Europe. We advocate and lobby their interests in two main institutions in Europe – the Council of Europe and the European Union”, he noted. The members of the YFJ are organizations, which also consist of other youth organizations or young people. Every two years the YFJ organizes the YO!Fest together with European Parliament in conjunction with the European Youth Event. This year up to 30 000 participants from all over the world would have taken part in the event. Unfortunately, it has been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak. On the bright side, now the European Parliament has presented a special online edition of the event, with different activities organized in digital formats.
Ville shared his experience of living in Russia for one year during his studies. In that context he explained his opinion about youth role in development of Russia–EU relations. “I wish it was up to us [young people], to improve the relations between Russia and the European Union. That would make life easier. But there are still things that we can do and that we should do. I think, we should take the risk and spend some time with each other. It’s a long game but at least it’s what we can do and no one will take it from us”, Ville noted. As an example of such interaction he gave meaningful trips, when besides sightseeing you also spend some time communicating with the natives and trying to understand them.
Watch full interview: https://youtu.be/YDWpafKY3kk