Daniel Debono, from Malta Business Bureau, and Pilar Ruiz Huélamo, from the Delegation of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce to the EU
Brussels, 16/04/2024.- The Delegation of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce to the EU participated in the Youth Summit: Europe towards 2030, a satellite event of the European Youth Week, with the activity "Promoting a European project", within the framework of the European project "Rural Youth of Europe".
The Rural Youth Summit – Europe towards 2023 aimed to open a dialogue at European level on some of the prototypes created during the project. It took place on 16 and 17 April. The mission of the Summit is to:
To put the young people of the project in contact with the European institutions and decision-making centres in Europe.
To inform opinion makers in the European Union of the results, ideas, projects, prototypes and recommendations that have been generated during the project.
Introduce the team of Ambassadors to the project that guarantees its sustainability.
One of the activities of the Summit was the activity "Promoting a European Project" held at the headquarters of the Delegation to the EU, which consisted of a role-playing game that showed how a European project is created and developed. To do this, three of twelve prototypes were used, which would be presented the following day to the European Commission.
It's about understanding and giving voice to the needs of our rural youth and exploring how we can turn the tide in their favour. Through the 'Rural Youth of Europe' project, we focus on the sustainable development of our rural regions, addressing difficult problems such as the lack of job opportunities, limited access to education and training or the digital divide faced by their inhabitants.- Pilar Ruiz Huélamo, Director of the Delegation of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce to the EU.
The activity was attended by representatives of the 3 main European institutions:
On behalf of the European Parliament: MEP Nicolás González Casares.
On behalf of the Commission: Carmen Calderón Gutiérrez, Unit C2 of the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development.
And on behalf of the Council: Janine Costa, Minister of Education, Youth, Culture and Sport of the Permanent Representation of Portugal to the EU and María José Tarrero Martos, Minister of Labour, Migration and Social Security of the Permanent Representation of Spain to the EU.
In addition, we had the participation of Daniel Debono, Head of Brussels Operations of Malta Business Bureau, who closed the event.
Rural Youth of Europe is a European project, co-financed by the Citizenship, Equality, Rights and Values Programme (CERV), aimed at young people who live in rural areas and face a series of difficulties in terms of their labour insertion (digital connection, depopulation...), common aspects between the different regions of Spain and Europe. Its ultimate aim is to promote practical skills of European rural youth.
With the challenge of bridging the rural-urban divide, Rural Youth of Europe brings together local, regional and national authorities in Spain, Portugal and Malta to discover viable and sustainable solutions that respond to the particular needs of young people in these areas, with a particular focus on harnessing digital skills and capitalising on working models resulting from the pandemic.
It is essential to strengthen and value the pride of being a young person who can live and work in or from rural areas with the same opportunities as from the urban environment, and possibly with a better quality of life.
The project consortium was led by the Galicia Europe Foundation, and included among its other partners the Chamber of Commerce of Santiago de Compostela, the Amicos Association, Lug Open Partner, Eurocidade Chaves Verin, and the Regional Council of Northern Malta (Regjun Tramuntana).
In terms of its structure, the project has been structured in three phases:
The first phase consisted of four hackathons where young people from various regions worked in teams to address local challenges and create innovative solutions.
The second phase brought together young people from rural areas around five International Creative Jams (three in Galicia, one in Portugal and one in Malta) to develop prototypes that would respond to common problems in these areas.
And the third and final phase focused on the celebration of "the Youth Summit – Europe towards 2030".
The celebration of this event reflects the commitment of the Delegation of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce to the promotion and visibility of the activities of the rest of the institutions that make up the chamber network.
Link to the photos of the event.