Summer camp 09

Between the 4th to the 7th of June, EU citizens are called to the ballot box to elect the European Parliament. By voting, they take their destiny as European citizens into their own hands – they elect a parliament that is co-responsible for up to 70% of the legislation that affects our daily lives, the lives of 500 million EU citizens.

Aloys Rigaut, President of European Liberal Youth (LYMEC) states: 'Even if some national politicians have not understood yet: we all for a long time already live in the European Union, and not only in our respective home countries. The reality is even that European politics quite often determine our real lives much more than national politics would do. This is why making a political choice in European Parliament elections influences everybody’s personal future more than one would imagine and therefore why it is so important to go out and win these elections if we want to have a more liberal future'.

Some populist and extreme right parties are claiming the concept of Liberty, a tendency that occurs in all parts of Europe. One can see for example how in Belgium the extreme right party, Vlaams Belang, is claiming the concept as freedom. The same is happening in the
Netherlands with Geert Wilders’ Party of the Freedom, in Ireland with Libertas or in Italy with Berlusconi’s party of the People of Freedom. Liberty is however a concept historically developed by liberals, as for instance by J. S. Mill in "On Liberty", a book in which he defended the idea of freedom of speech, or earlier writings from J. Locke and A. Smith about economic freedom.

Last weekend LYMEC - the European Liberal Youth - held its annual Congress and Executive Committee in Rome. Following a seminar on civil liberties (see separate article) the young liberals met to discuss a number of political resolutions, decide the course of the organisation for the coming months and adopt the financial and annual reports. The event also saw the presentation of LYMEC's three thematic campaigns on
free trade, civil liberties and the EU budget.

The participants from all over Europe were addressed by such distinguished speakers as Mrs Annemie Neyts, President of ELDR, Mrs Flo Clucas, President of the ALDE group in the Committee of regions as well as Mr Leoluca Orlando and Niccolo Rinaldi as MEP candidates for Italia dei Valori.

Last week the European Liberal Youth LYMEC met in Tivoli near Rome to discuss about data protection and privacy in 21st century Europe. The four day seminar titled “Choice, Information, Privacy: three great challenges for future decision makers” gathered about 30 young liberals from all across Europe. The event was co-organised with the support of the ALDE Group in the Committee of the Regions and with the assistance of Youth Department of Italia dei Valori.

The seminar addressed the status of civil liberties in the context of today’s fast developing information technology. Seminar participants discussed the freedom of press as well as free access to information. A special focus was put on data protection in the context of internet and new social media.

The decade of work towards Roma inclusion 2005 - 2015 is almost half way through. However LYMEC recognises that the situation for the largest European minority isn't improving fast enough. The combination of the economic crisis and xenophobic populist politicians mean that the opposite can be seen. LYMEC calls on European liberals to fight against the terrible situation faced by the Roma community and asks our European politicians to build on possible solutions for Roma integration, such as establishing local and global inter-ethnic partnerships and the recognition of both Roma language and culture.

We, representatives of the European party political youth organizations, namely YEPP, ECOSY and LYMEC, wish to urge all young Europeans to participate in the forthcoming European elections, to act and express themselves with a clear voice on Europe's future. It is our decision and our choice to give the European Parliament a strong mandate in order to face citizens' needs and demands in the next period, taking the European Union out of the institutional and economic crisis, and designing a better future for all. Participation is a democratic right which we should not denounce or neglect - because this is what makes our voices stronger.

On the 27th and 28th of April, the Ministers responsible for higher education from the 46 European countries taking part in the Bologna process met at the Belgian universities of Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve for a stocktaking of the ongoing reforms but also to discuss the coming agenda for further development of the “European Higher Education Area” (EHRA).

On April the 15th, the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR) celebrated its campaign start in Brussels. More than one thousand liberals from all across the Union attended the kick-off event for European Parliament elections in June 2009. At the high-class event, several Commissioners, Ministers and election list top-runners took part.

LYMEC President Aloys Rigaut gave a speech in front of the audience, outlining the recipe for low voter turnout: “First ingredient: make things very complex. (…) Second ingredient: bore citizens, campaign on issues that have absolutely NO relevance at all for their everyday life. (…) Last ingredient: talk about issues on which everyone agrees (…) And very important: tell them that if they vote against [the] consensus they are against Europe and should be ashamed.”