Opening speech of the Youth Event by Aleš Sedláček, prezident of the Czech Council of Children and Youth
Published: Wednesday, 3 June 2009, 20:05Czech Presidency Youth event have started. Follow the opening speech of Aleš Sedláček, prezident of The Czech Council of Children and Youth, which sounded on the plenary session.
Honorable guests from the European Commission, representatives of our most beloved Ministry of Education, our young friends.
The Czech presidency of the Council of the European Union brought to our country many opportunities. For the Czech Council of Children and Youth the opportunity to participate in the preparations of the Youth Event was a great experience. Czech Council of Children and Youth has actively participated in developing the European Youth Policy since its establishment in 1998. Our partners were the Ministry of Education as well as the European Youth Forum, where we took part in creation of the Shadow Reports. Priorities of the European Youth Policy became a part of the policy conception of the Ministry of Education. Year 2009 gives us opportunity to evaluate the current situation, but mainly to steer the European Youth Policy towards future.
Voluntary work with children and youth has an incredible tradition in the Czech Republic. That’s why the topics of volunteering and non-formal education find a great response in our country. Czech Council of Children and Youth is trying to support volunteering by services such as administration of injury and liability insurance for the members, legal and information services, but also by defending members‘ interests in the Czech Republic as well as on the European level. Czech Council of Children and Youth is an active partner of the public administration and plays an important role in lobbying.
We’re glad that actions taken in order to announce year two thousand eleven as the European Year of Volunteering, supported also by our Minister of Education in a personal letter to the Commissioner Figel, found strong support in the European Commission. The European Year of Volunteering is a great opportunity to promote current volunteering activities as well as to create new ones. To foster international cooperation, to share good examples. I would hereby like to ask the European Commission representatives to share with us their vision of how the European Year will be carried out in the Member States. The Czech Council of Children and Youth is ready to stand up for the role of coordinator in the Czech Republic.
Inclusion of young volunteers and continuing volunteering in later age is a very up-to-date issue. Visit of Bambiriada, which is planned for Thursday, will enable you to see at least a bit of our member organisations‘ activities. Bambiriáda is the biggest festival of free-time activities for children and youth in the Czech Republic. Last year it took place in twenty eight cities and was visited by more than two hundred fifty thousands people. Bambiriada was included into the official events of the Czech Presidency in the field of youth.
We were aware that if the outcomes of your debates are to be effective, it’s necessary to deeply analyse the current situation. In our background documents that are for your disposal we tried, in cooperation with the European Youth Forum and the European Commission, to describe the existing documents as well as the outcomes of previous debates. We strongly believe that only a knowledgeable person can steer the discussion in the right direction. By thorough preparation we wanted to achieve that the topics don’t repeat, that we don’t waste time by defining terms. We aimed towards perfect continuity.
I hope that you’ll cooperate well with the facilitators in respective workshops. They’re true professionals. We received over a hundred applications for the post of facilitators and we picked ten best out of them. Quality of our selection was already proven during the preparatory meeting.
We believe that the outcomes of your discussions will be as practical as possible, that it will not be just empty proclamations. I wish that you can, apart from defining current problems, come up with possible solutions. Such solutions, that actively involve young people.
We appreciate the possibility to cooperate on preparations with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, European Youth Forum and even directly with the European Commission, that has participated in our preparatory meetings. Czech Council of Children and Youth has a definite interest in becoming a member of the European Youth Forum. We have submitted the application and sent the necessary documents. Voting about our membership should take place in autumn. Czech Council of Children and Youth is a democratic organisation that brings together two hundred thousands individual members in ninety-eight member organisations. It might be also up to YOU whether we become members of the European youth umbrella organisation in the end.
I know how troubling is the unemployment of graduates in some EU Member States. How big is the unwillingness of employers to recognise work practise. I understand the unrest among young people, I understand the will to tackle this issue. On the other hand, I’m afraid of restrictive measures, new laws, orders. I’ve spent my childhood in a society where there was no unemployment, everything belonged to everyone and in reality no-one apart from a few „chosen ones“ possessed anything. There were times when certain services and goods were absolutely out of reach of common citizens. Be it vegetables, fruits, toiletry, cars, bicycles. In school, we had to learn the names of all capital cities of all countries in the world, but we never dreamed that we could ever visit those countries. Majority of people wasn’t unhappy, because they didn’t know broad opportunites they could potentially have.
You live in a cage and they tell you that it’s golden for so long that finally the majority accepts that it’s like that. When speaking about the cage, I mean it literally. Maybe only bars were substituted by the barbed wire on borders. Neither the freedom of association nor the freedom of speech existed. Work with children and youth took place only in organisations allowed by the state.
I had to mention that. Freedom is not for free. This year it’s already incredible twenty years since the direction of history in our country has changed. After twenty year, the New Generation is coming. Also new problems and challenges are emerging and we’re dealing with some of them at our meeting. Today, we have a possibility of a free dialogue. We’re members of a big society formed on a voluntary basis. We appreciate that. I wanted this to be said here. We thank you for accepting us, for the possibility of being with you here. Let’s take advantage of the spirit of beautiful Prague, let the atmosphere of an old city in the heart of Europe inspire us.
I wish you all a nice and fruitful stay and I’m looking forward to the outcomes of the conference.
Aleš Sedláček President of Czech Council of Children and Youth
