Business Cooperation  | Culture | Education | Energy | Environment | Gender Equality  | Health and Social Affairs  | Information Society | Sport | Tourism | Transportation | Urban Planning | Youth Issues | EU Coordinators Network


Commission on Youth Issues

UBC Commission on Youth Issues was finally established during the VII General Conference in Klaipėda, 18 October 2003.

 

Commission on Youth Issues

The tasks of the Commission are to promote youth co-operation in the Baltic Sea Region and to work towards youth involvement, youth exchange and youth participation in the UBC member cities.

It should serve as a basis for UBC contact persons on youth issues.

The commission builds upon existing youth networks of local youth structures as well as upon one youth organisation as a contact point in each member city. The network co-operates closely together with the Baltic Sea Secretariat for Youth Affairs, which is to become a consultative body for the network, as well as with the UBC Secretariat.

The Commission will consist of young people as well as civil servants and politicians dealing with youth issues on the local level. Existing youth networks of the Baltic Sea Region will be taken into account. The Commission will monitor the agenda of UBC from a youth perspective.

Objectives

• Create a working group and a youth contact net within the Network on youth issues
• Lobby towards nomination of a youth contact officer in every UBC member city.
• Co-operate with the Baltic Sea Secretariat for Youth affairs in getting an overview of the activities of the local organisations in UBC member cities.
• Monitor the agenda and documents of the UBC from a Youth point of view

A UBC Youth Conference

The focus of the annual conferences is on questions important for young people of the Baltic Sea Region. It represents a forum for young people of the UBC member cities as well as other cities willing to join in, to exchange experiences, finding partners and discuss common issues such as youth participation, EU and Baltic Sea- cooperation and youth influence on local levels. The conference is organised with regard to the UBC General Conference as well as to other for addressing youth issues in the Baltic Sea Region.

In the framework of the conference youth representatives will be elected for the “Commission on Youth issues”.

Objectives

• Work towards a conference on local youth actions within UBC member cities in 2005.

UBC Executive Board

The young people of the Baltic Sea Region consider it of great importance that the UBC Executive Board gets in contact with young people of every city they meet in, with the aim to learn about the views and ideas of the young generation concerning the life in and the future of that very city. We call upon the UBC Executive Board and the UBC Secretariat to work towards the Network on Youth issues”.

Objectives

• The Commission on Youth Issues should be active in finding ways and follow-ups for dialogue between the UBC Executive Board and young people in the region during the UBC meetings.


HISTORY

1997-2001
Between the years 1997 and 2001 there where a youth exchange going on between several Baltic cities namely Gdańsk/Sopot, Kaliningrad, Panevėžys, Rostock and Kalmar. Its origin was an initiative taken by the municipality of Kalmar, Kalmar Youth Council and the Regional council for Kalmar county. The exchange was named “YCSF – Youths Concerning a Sustainable Future”, and its focus was on youth and sustainability. As the exchange went on, the young people that participated, started to focus more and more on their real possibility to influence today society and the sustainability of the future.

The conclusion was that young people’s possibility to take active part in society must start on a very local level, and that there are processes needed to support and initiate youth participation in society. The new question that was raised was, is there any organisation in the Baltic Sea Region that are interested in hearing what youth around the Baltic has to say?

2002

• A Task force for youth participation was put together with representatives from different cities: Charlotte Gustafsson, Kalmar, Stefan Birkebjerk-Andersen, Kolding, and Magdalena Marchlewicz, Sopot. The Baltic Sea Secretariat for Youth affairs in Kiel was represented by Sandra Weidemann and Kieler Jugendring. Kalmar youth council was represented by Carl Bengtsson.
  
• The decision was made to arrange a Youth Conference, with young people and civil servants from all UBC member cities invited. Kalmar was to co-ordinate the conference. The conference was supported financial by the National Youth Board of Sweden, Nordiska ungdomskommittén, Baltic Sea Secretariat for Youth Affairs, Municipality of Kalmar, Regional council of Kalmar county and UBC.

2003

• Young Voices of the Baltic Sea Region conference held in Kalmar, Sweden on 15th- 18th of May 2003, hosted around 100 youngsters and civil servants dealing with youth issues from 8 countries and 34 cities in the countries around the Baltic Sea. The young participants were young people active at a local level: at schools, in youth councils, or in local NGO’s. In the framework of the UBC’s co-operation project with the Lake Victoria Regional Local Authority Cooperation (LVRLAC) in Africa, a further 7 young people from the countries bordering Lake Victoria also participated.

More information about this Commission at:  www.ubc-youth.org

Activity Report submitted during the IX UBC General Conference in Parnu, 27-28 September 2007.

Activity Report submitted at the 47th UBC Execitive Board meeting, Gdynia, 19-20 October 2006

Activity Report submitted during the VIII UBC General Conference in Turku, 29
 September - 2 October 2005

Activity Report submitted at the Executive Board meeting uin Riga, on 16 October 2004

Here you can see the list of e-mail addresses to persons in member cities dealing wit youth issues.                  

---

Chair of Commission - City of Tallinn Ms. Kaia Jäppinen, Deputy Mayor Contact person: Ms. Ilona Rannala, City of Tallinn Tel: +372 6404686 E-mail: ilona-evelyn.rannala@tallinnlv.ee  Vice chair of Commission - City of Kalmar Ms. Birgitta Elfström, Deputy Mayor Contact person: Ms. Sophia Sundlin Tel: +46 480 450198 E-mail: sophia.sundlin@kalmar.se  Secretariat UBC Commission on Youth Issues Department of Development and International Affairs, City of KalmarBox 611 39126 Kalmar SWEDEN



---

Responsible for the information on this page is the commission itself
Report any errors you might encounter to the webmaster