Youth.Solidarity.Day: Young Europeans meet to discuss the challenges of European Union humanitarian aid

On Tuesday 20 January the European Parliament and the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) are organising an awareness-raising day in Brussels on European humanitarian aid, for about 550 young people from all EU member states. The event will mobilise young Europeans around the values of European solidarity which is at the core of humanitarian aid efforts carried out by ECHO, worth around € 500 million every year.

The President of the European Parliament, Pat Cox, said: "Young people are the future of Europe, and continued European humanitarian aid depends on them. I believe that the young are genuinely concerned about and committed to these issues. It is up to us to provide them with the information they need to mobilise around European humanitarian action and the values it represents."

Commissioner for development and humanitarian aid Poul Nielson said: "The European Union is about a lot more than the euro and enlargement. The European Union is also about joining forces and making a real difference for millions of victims of humanitarian crises around the world. Our humanitarian efforts are based on values of solidarity with the people in need and on principles of neutrality, impartiality and humanity. I consider it to be crucial for the "sustainability" of our humanitarian aid policy to bring together the decision makers of tomorrow to share and exchanges views on these common values and principles that drive our work".

Youth.Solid@rity.Day brings together about 550 young people from 30 schools in all EU member states for a full day of debates, activities and case studies on humanitarian aid. Themes to be treated during the day include: (i) refugees and displaced people; (ii) hunger; (iii) water and sanitation for health; (iv) landmines and other security problems; and (v) child soldiers.

Throughout the day the participants will be accompanied by Echo staff and professional humanitarian aid workers from UN humanitarian agencies, members of the Red Cross family and NGOs who will share their personal experiences from the field.

Activities will include a family tracing exercise, a reconstructed therapeutic feeding centre and a de-mining exercise. Through these activities the objective is to give the young people a grasp of the reality of humanitarian aid: what is at stake, the obstacles it faces, but also the potential that it carries with it in terms of making a real difference for the millions of victims it is helping.

At the end of the Youth.Solid@rity.Day participants will adopt a resolution on the challenges faced and actions to be taken to ensure support for a continued strong EU humanitarian effort.

President of the European Parliament Mr. Pat Cox, Vice-president of the European Parliament Mr. Gérard Onesta, UN high commissioner for refugees Mr. Ruud Lubbers and European Commissioner Mr. Poul Nielson will be addressing the conference. Throughout the day participants will be addressed by specialists from ECHO's partner organisations: UN humanitarian agencies, members of the Red Cross family and NGOs.

Youth.Solid@rity.Day will be held in the European Parliament building in Brussels.

More information, including the programme of the day's event, may be found at:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/echo/youthsolidarityday

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