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THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION HAS RECENTLY launched a new internet portal specifically for young people. Based on the Commission White Paper 'A new impetus for European Youth', the web site aims to provide 75 million EU citizens with quick and easy access to relevant youth related information. It will cover such topics as studying and working in a foreign country, volunteering and exchanges. Many of these activities have been sponsored by the EU's Youth programme which has funded 40,000 projects involving 400,000 young people since 2000.
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The new facility was inaugurated in May with an internet chat between education commissioner Vivane Reding and her shadow Dalia Grybauskaite during which they exchanged views with young people across Europe in 20 languages. When the European Review tried out the new site, after getting to the English language home page, the first announcement to catch the eye warned that 'not all links and tools are functioning yet and neither is the information content complete'. However the Commission claims that the portal already has 'links to more than 10,000 websites of interest to young people' in the target age group of from 15 to 25 years of age. Following the links from the home page the user can download the portal icon (see above) or click on topics such as 'Whats' new', 'Youth programme', 'White paper', 'studying', 'working', 'volunteering/exchanges', and 'your rights'. When we followed 'What's new' we found hyperlinks to a large number of sites, categorised by country in rough date order with descriptions of their contents, though as warned, some of the links didn't work. This new site seems to be a worthy idea but time will tell if its content will draw the young people of Europe in sufficient numbers to make it a success. |
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The symbol of the new European Youth Portal |
Web pages mentioned on this page are available at :
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European Youth Portal - English home page | |
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- What's new page | |
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- Studying page | |
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- Working page | |
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- Your rights page | |
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Estonian Government's Press Office Briefing Room |
THERE HAS BEEN MUCH TALK IN THE UK about e-government (see issue 20 page 2) with some controversy over how much progress has really been made and whether the public will ever give up forms for web pages. However one small eastern European country is showing its new EU partners a clean pair of heels in this field. Estonia was recently given fifth place in a Harvard University worldwide survey into online government. Unlike the British programme the Estonians do not just concentrate on communications between government departments and the governed: even the cabinet is wired. Each minister has a monitor and broadband connection. When a decision is made press officers immediately update the government web site which is available to all Estonian citizens. The average length of a cabinet meeting has been reduced from 10 hours to 45 minutes. Communication is not all one-way however. Estonians can use a web site called 'Today, I decide' to comment on government proposals or even to put forward some ideas of their own. According to Estonia's foreign minister, Kristiina Ojuland 'there have been cases where we've changed our legislation based on those proposals coming from citizens'.
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