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YEN - Youth of European Nationalities

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YEN´s Campaign #MYnorityMYsay

About

We, as the network of young people from national, ethnic and linguistic minorities, have our own ideas on how Europe should look like. We also have our own and particular needs and interests, connected with our realities of life – the life as young people belonging to minorities. With our campaign #MYnorityMYsay we raised our voices to have our say in the election campaigns of 2019 and beyond!

The campaign is based on a set of demands developed by a group of young people from fourteen countries and twenty minorities during our Easter Seminar 2019 “Speak up!”. During the Seminar young people discussed their demands and ideas regarding European, national and local policies.

The campaign was then launched in April 2019 bringing the voice of young people from national, ethnic and linguistic minorities into the discourse before the European Parliamentary Elections. Throughout 2019 the campaign supported YENs activities which focused on youth participation. But also after 2019, we decided to continue with the campaign as young people from minorities are still not heard enough in the public discourse.

With #MYnorityMYsay YEN:

promotes youth participation;

gives a louder voice to young people belonging to minorities to make their ideas, concerns and demands heard;

makes a point that young people have concrete ideas about their communities and societies;

engages youth from minorities in public discourse;

demonstrates the diversity of subjects relevant to young people;

documents the outcomes and results of our activities and seminars.

Our goals

With #MYnorityMYsay we want to make clear, that young people are not only the future as politicians like to underline. Already today we have important ideas about our communities, society and policies and these ideas need to be taken into account by the decision makers.

We believe that our needs and rights should be a topic in the public discourse more often and that they should be taken into account by the EP-candidates, future Members of the European Parliament, as well as local and national stakeholders!

You call young people, the future of Europe.
But we are here today, and we want to have OUR SAY!

The Easter Seminar and the campaign “MYnority MYSay” was possible due to the support of the European Youth Foundation (Council of Europe) and the German Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community.