120 young greens from all over Europe participated in the General Assembly of the Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG) which was held in Berlin from the 9th to the 11th of May. In the General Assembly, Young Greens elected a new Executive Committee and a Secretary General for FYEG, whilst celebrating together with younger and older young greens the organisation’s 20th anniversary.

The Federation of Young European Greens is extremely concerned about the precarious nature of the job market created by the strategy for employment of the European Commission. On Unemployment Day, FYEG would like to remind the European Institutions that this strategy has created an unprecedented situation in Europe, in which 40% of the unemployed are under 30 years old. Due to this situation, the youth of Europe face worse access to housing and a delay in their emancipation.

Earth Day has been celebrated on the 22nd of April since 1970, when 2 million people demonstrated in the United States against the deplorable state of the environment and their Government’s passivity when it came to taking effective environmental initiatives.  Earth Day soon became internationally recognised and celebrated. It is today meant to remind people that environmental protection should uninterruptedly take priority on political and civil society agendas the world over.

On the occasion of International Roma Day (April 8th), the Federation of Young European Greens stresses the need for raising awareness on the widely discriminating practices that this minority is faced with all over Europe.

Marina Barbalata, Spokesperson of FYEG, maintains: "The Roma have lived in Europe for centuries, but are still regarded as a migrant minority. Discrimination practices are widely spread across the European countries where Roma communities reside and are a frequent practise in many aspects of social, political and economic life. (...)"

Between the 2nd and 4th of April, the NATO Summit was held in Bucharest, Romania. Expected to be a milestone for the further development of the Alliance, the Summit only came to highlight the internal power struggles. The Federation of Young European Greens considers that the failure of the Summit to present a consensual and united alliance with the purpose of bringing stability to the world is further proof that NATO is an inefficient and remote instrument that is completely incapable of insuring the peace and safety of the world's population.

From the 15th to 23rd March 2008 young greens from all over Europe gathered in Nantes, France to debate the current status of the continent's energy production and consumption and to explore the future paths for sustainable development. During the week, more than 50 young people from Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Romania, Spain and Sweden worked together within the framework of the winter camp. The event, entitled “The power of the future!: A European youth perspective on Energy from production to consumption” was jointly organized by the Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG) and the “Jeunes Verts” (Young Greens) from France.

Dear friends,
 
Between the 19th and 24th of August 2008, the Federation of Young European Greens is organizing the seminar "The Roma Minority in Europe. A Nomad Path to Exclusion", in Bucharest, Romania. The seminar is organised with the support of the Council of Europe.

The seminar will look in detail at one of the most picturesque, yet also marginalised minorities in Europe: the Roma. The topic will be approached from a cultural perspective, from the angle of European diversity, provided 2008 will be European Year of Cultural Diversity. Concretely, topics such as the living standards of Roma communities in different European countries, the discrimination they face on labour markets, access to education and political representation and in the society at large, and the prejudices and stereotypes related to this minority will be discussed, meanwhile paying attention to the enrichment of the European cultural heritage brought about by this minority and their particular customs.

In 1908 15.000 women marched on the streets of New York, demanding shorter working hours, higher payment and claiming the right to vote. 100 years later, after a century of intense feminist struggles, most of these initial battles have been won. However, we are still far from a gender equal society. Therefore, the Federation of Young European Greens calls for a celebration of Women’s Day in the sense of acknowledging the steps forward, but at the same time warning of all the steps that remain before reaching real equality between the genders.

Saturday, the 16th of February, marked the third anniversary of the enforcement of the Kyoto Protocol. The Protocol, developed under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, was initiated in the mid 90s with the aim of reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that are the main cause of climate change. However, it took almost a decade for the Protocol to be adopted by some 160 countries that merely cover 60% of countries in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.