YES Forum EWIV YOUTH AND EUROPEAN SOCIAL WORK- EUROPAISCHE WIRTSCHAFTLICHE INTERESSENVEREINIGUNG ZUR FORDERUNG DER HUMANRESSOURCEN
YES Forum
Established in 2002, YES Forum is a European network of organisations from across Europe dedicated to supporting young people with fewer opportunities.
ID: 099101116985-63
Lobbying Activity
Meeting with Maria Ohisalo (Member of the European Parliament)
19 Nov 2025 · Exhange of views
Meeting with Leila Chaibi (Member of the European Parliament)
3 Oct 2024 · EMPL related issues
Response to Multiannual Financial Framework: Erasmus Programme 2021-2027
24 Sept 2018
YES Forum is a European network of 39 youth and social organisations in 19 EU Member States or Programme countries working with and for young people who face socio-economic and educational disadvantages, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity and geographical discrimination.
YES Forum welcomes the European Commission proposal to renew, improve and, especially, strengthen Erasmus through the next EU Multiannual financial framework .
In particular, the doubled budget sends an extremely positive sign to EU citizens and the EU Civil Society. Additionally, the stated objective of making the next Erasmus programme more inclusive and accessible to the widest possible range of target groups is a long-awaited, much needed and therefore extremely important feature. Without it, the gap amidst European youth will only grow bigger, carrying numerous threats for the European Union future.
However, YES Forum would like to share the following remarks and suggestions to improve the next Erasmus programme, in particular in regard to Inclusiveness and Accessibility.
Please find a summary below, and all details in the enclosed document:
I. YES Forum believes that Information, Communication and Technological tools can at best complement “physical” outreach;
II. DiscoverEU looks distant from the objectives of focusing “on inclusiveness, and to reach more young people with fewer opportunities”, while Youth Exchanges could achieve the same goals in a structured way;
III. There could be a better balance in the overall budget: KA1 in the field of youth should prioritize activities which are the most accessible to youth in all its diversity and KA2 in the field of youth should also prioritize activities providing greater benefits to young people with fewer opportunities;
IV. The new Programme should offer a better balanced and fairer distribution of funds between Education and Training (Higher Education in particular) and Youth;
V. The new Programme should offer more clarity, visibility, and avoid the bureaucratic complications many NGOs and stakeholders (equally interested in Erasmus and the European Solidarity Corps) are already expecting from such a split;
VI. YES Forum strongly supports the objective of simplification in the future Programme, making suggestions about the optimisation of the online tools.
Read full responseResponse to EU Youth Strategy Joint Report and new framework post 2018
6 Mar 2018
The YES Forum (http://www.yes-forum.eu/) welcomes the Member States‘ and Commission’s commitment to renew the EU Youth Strategy beyond 2018. To improve the previous EU Youth Strategy’s framework and the aspects focused on in this roadmap, the YES Forum would like to stress on the following aspects in particular:
1 - Digital can’t solve everything: The use of digital tools and social media must of course be part of an ambitious outreach effort to trigger interest about the EU and EU opportunities among young people, and create a dialogue with youth. However digital tools are not enough: the most vulnerable young people, who feel the most disconnected from the EU, cannot be reached online because of their lack of prior interest in EU and more generally public matters.
Too strong an emphasis on the use of digital tools within the next EU Youth Strategy would therefore widen the gap among European youth, especially between the European-minded and already engaged youth, and young people feeling or actually excluded.
2 – Providing more and better support to social and youth work in reaching out to young people from a disadvantaged background is therefore crucial. Only this way we can actually bridge the abovementioned gap.
Social & Youth work are the best and most direct way to reach out to the youngsters who are most disconnected from the EU and civic engagement. Local grassroot youth organizations therefore need adapted support to work efficiently. Financially speaking, it is the responsibility of Member States to provide appropriate funding to the youth and social field. Organizationally speaking, the EU should also better involve youth & social organisations, using them as indirect channels to reach out to disadvantaged youth in particular. Adapting EU programmes so that they are more accessible to small, local youth organisations (“Simplification”) should be an ongoing EU objective. Building partnerships with such youth organisations would also greatly help improving the diversity of youth reached through meetings and conferences, where disadvantaged youth is underrepresented: they can act as direct relays to involve specific target groups, and provide their expertise in how to adapt the format/methods of such events in order to make them accessible to youth in all its diversity.
3 - The European Solidarity Corps, as mentioned in the roadmap, indeed represents a strategic opportunity to encourage young people to engage in civic life. However, the ESC as presented in the EC’s legislative proposal has exactly the abovementioned flaws.
On paper, the focus on youngsters with fewer opportunities is there. However many features in the current ESC plans would actually make it less accessible to disadvantaged youth. The focus on digital tools in particular (in reaching out to young people, with the ESC database, or in the preparation of future volunteers) leaves aside all young people with no prior interest/knowledge/connection to EU matters and opportunities. To avoid such a situation and make the ESC actually inclusive, a stronger emphasis on actual, direct, physical work with young people is crucial: this way only can youth & social work efficiently contribute to the ESC’s success by reaching out to the young people who are most distant from the EU and not reachable through online tools only.
For instance, this support to youth work’s contribution could involve:
- A higher priority to project applications focusing on disadvantaged youngsters;
- Specific additional funding to reach out, prepare and support youngsters with fewer opportunities, such as Reinforced mentorship schemes, while making these less bureaucratic than they are currently through EVS.
Read full responseMeeting with Tibor Navracsics (Commissioner) and European Youth Forum and
23 Apr 2015 · Tackling the radicalisation of young people