31995Y0812(02)

COUNCIL RESOLUTION

of 31 March 1995

on cooperation in the field of youth information and studies concerning youth

(95/C 207/02)

1. The Council underlines the importance of youth information and information on young people as factors encouraging mobility and European citizenship, as well as the need to set up concerted action in this field.

It notes that information services for young people, based on common principles, such as those defined in particular in recommendation No R(90)7 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (Information and Counselling for Young People in Europe), exist in most of the Member States.

It welcomes the cooperation efforts made in the youth information field since 1988, which culminated on 26 June 1991 in the adoption by the Council and the Ministers for Youth meeting within the Council of the resolution on priority actions in the youth field, and enabled youth information and studies concerning youth to appear among the five actions listed in the framework of the 'Youth for Europe III` programme.

2. The Council agrees to step up cooperation in the following fields:

- the training of information workers, socio-educational youth workers and educators (professionals and volunteers) working in the youth information sector,

- the linking of youth information structures in the Member States,

- regular studies on young people in the countries of the European Union.

(a) Training: The Council notes, on the one hand, that young people need to be more familiar with the countries and institutions of the European Union in order fully to exercise their European citizenship and their right to mobility and, on the other hand, that in receiving, informing and advising young people, information service staff play a vital role in the transmission of information.

It therefore emphasizes the need to encourage such staff to take account of the European dimension in the course of their work.

With this aim in mind, it calls for the youth workers responsible for providing young people with information to receive training enabling them to:

- become better acquainted with the Member States and their practices in the field of youth information,

- acquire a knowledge of Community programmes, in liaison with all the agencies responsible for administering programmes on the national level and with the appropriate services at Community level.

(b) Network links: the Council notes the current trends in connection with the development of multi-media products and considers that the services producing, editing and circulating information are especially concerned by these new technologies.

Having regard to previous experience of cooperation between the Member States' information structures, the Council stresses the importance of stepping up the networking of these structures and of taking existing information structures into account. To this end, it notes that current technologies offer increased opportunities for cooperation. It acknowledges the importance of giving young people easier direct or indirect access to this type of network.

It calls for action to promote cooperation via the networks in the collecting of data on mobility and exchanges (e.g. studies, employment, accommodation, leisure activities, transport, etc.). The aim is to allow the rapid exchange of targeted information, accessible in the languages of the Member States, the augmenting and updating of databases, and a better supply of high-quality information for young people.

(c) Regular studies: The Council understands the importance of regular studies, surveys and statistics based on scientific methods to obtain a better understanding of young people's expectations and needs and the factors that affect their lives. Such studies, surveys and statistics should focus on a number of targeted areas taking into account the European dimension, including mobility.

3. The development of these three areas of cooperation at European level will have to take into account the organization of the structures that exist in the Member States for youth information and for the provision of information about young people.

The Council:

- regards these three areas as having priority when it comes to implementing the policy of cooperation in the youth information field, as embodied in the 'Youth for Europe III` programme, for example, in such a way as to promote, in particular, a dialogue between young people and the Community,

- emphasizes the importance of close cooperation with the Council of Europe in this field,

- invites the Commission to take account of the follow-up to initiatives in the three fields in the framework of the evaluation report provided for in Article 9 of the Decision establishing the 'Youth for Europe III` programme.