EYCE Press Release: EYCE ExCo meets in Amsterdam, the Netherlands
From the 8th – 10th of February 2013 the Executive Committee (ExCo) of the Ecumenical Youth Council in Europe (EYCE) met for their first meeting in 2013 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The ExCo also took the opportunity to meet young people from Amsterdam to promote EYCE and its work, thus seeking to increase the participation of young people from the Netherlands at EYCE’s activities.
In addition, directly prior to the ExCo meeting, on the 7th of February, an interreligious street action “Photo with a Neighbour!” was organised on the streets of Amsterdam in the framework of the World Interfaith Harmony Week. The action aimed at raising awareness of different faith communities present in Europe today and the necessity of a peaceful coexistence and cooperation between them.
During their meeting EYCE Executive Committee members reviewed and evaluated the work that has been done since their last meeting in October 2012 in Warsaw during the National Correspondent’s meeting, as well as started initial preparations for EYCE’s 39th General Meeting.
The agenda of the meeting included a variety of issues, such as cooperation with the partners and EYCE involvement in the work of European ecumenical and youth organisations, participation in the German Kirchentag and the contribution to the revision process of the Conference of European Churches.
In addition, the ExCo revised the work plan of the council, including upcoming events and representations for the year 2013, especially paying attention to the constitutional deadlines regarding EYCE’s 39th General Meeting. Also, the ExCo worked on the outline for the main themes and events in 2014 and developed a first proposal for the new campaign to be implemented in the years 2014-2016. The proposal is focusing on the poverty and its various aspects, such as mechanisms behind the poverty, the way how it affects people in various social groups, as well as the impact that EYCE and its MOs can give to eradication of poverty. The proposal will be presented fro discussion to the EYCE 39th General Meeting in October 2013.
The foreseen events for the year 2013 are:
- 30th of April – 5th of May 2013, “As much Freedom as you need!”, Hamburg, Germany, co-organised with German Protestant Kirchentag, the Federation of Protestant Youth in Germany (aej), SCM Germany (ESG) and the World Student Christian Federation in Europe (WSCF-E).
- 1st – 8th of July, 2013, The Stewards’ Programme of the 14th CEC General Assembly, Budapest, Hungary.
- 18th – 25th August 2013, “Be the Generation of Peace! A seminar to enhance the participation and contribution of young people to peace processes”, Novi Sad, Serbia.
- 24th November – 1st December 2013, “Taking Steps Towards an Ecologically Responsible Society: Contributions of faith based youth organisations to sustainability” – the closing event of EYCE’s Campaign to Promote Ecological Justice, Sibiu, Romania
Alongside other activities in 2013, EYCE’s 39th General Meeting will take place from 14th – 20th of October 2013 in Brno, Czech Republic. The meeting will be hosted by the Hussite Church in Czech Republic.
The ExCo developed the initial programme for 2014, outlining the first three events of the year, focusing respectively on youth employment and youth participation, poverty and the mechanisms behind it, as well as fair distribution of natural resources.
The preliminary dates for these events are:
- 26th of January – 2nd of February 2014, “Looking for a brighter future! A training course to foster solidarity in Europe and strengthen the participation of young people”, Spain.
- April 2014, “Links of Poverty. A training course to challenge the patterns of poverty.”
- July 2014, “Food, Land and Water. A training course to promote the fair distribution of natural resources in the framework of ecological justice”.
The great deal of the ExCo meeting was also dedicated to financial situation of EYCE and especially to exploring new funding possibilities and new approaches to fundraising.