After the article of FYEG Gender Working Group on the meeting in Brussels (27-30 August) appeared in Ecosprinter, Green Economy Group decided that we should definitely write a report as well. The thing that all the groups agreed to during the meeting is to be more active, communicate more, write more.
The membership of the Green Economy Group was rather uncertain before the meeting. Some people disappeared with or even without a trace. Some new people joined. That is why we realized how important it was to meet, discuss the future and inspire each other for the next half a year. Hence, we had Delfina Rossi, our link to the FYEG Executive Committee, Joel from Germany, the previous coordinator, Maria (Greece), Julius (Germany), Svea (Serbia), Livia (Slovakia), Margarita (Armenia), Sophia (Germany) and two Annas (Ukraine and Belarus).
I came to Brussels a day later. I felt a bit disappointed that I would spend less time with others. But after the story I heard about the robbery in the hostel the previous night I came again to the thought that everything has its meaning. In fact, I was as usual impressed by green youth. The people stayed calm and reasonable although they had become without their passports, laptops with agendas for the meeting and in some cases even without clothes. Anyway we got to work as it was planned. Respect!
The first day Green Economy group defined the aims of the group, activity plan and agenda for the meeting. As for our main aims we decided on empowering of young people and enhancing discussion on green economy. The main issues we want to concentrate the nearest future are youth unemployment, degrowth, trade and financial markets. Activity plan was defined as the following: preparation for the seminar on Green Economy in Greece (25-30 November), creation of some policy papers, particularly for the Council Meeting of the European Green Party in Tallinn, application for the next seminar on degrowth and voluntary jobs next year.
After all came to the consensus, planning of the seminar in Greece started. There were a lot of things to discuss: content, speakers, calls for participants, applications, deadlines. As a result, the content of the seminar will be mainly focused on Green New Deal, youth and unemployment and environmental economics. We really want that it will be relevant and interesting for young people. Moreover the seminar will encourage youth to apply their new knowledge on a local level when they come back home.
The next day was devoted to the discussion on Green New Deal which will be presented on the Council Meeting of the European Green Party in Tallinn in October. Anna Yeliseyeva was presenting the GND paper and the others who also had read the document before were following. In truth, the text is quite heavy and long, about 20 pages. But certainly, we have to show our involvement and concern about the future of Europe as it is we who are going to live in the future green world. That is why struggling with the paper continued for a long time. However to be more efficient later the group decided to divide into two. Thus, the other members discussed the text about tackling youth unemployment in Europe with the aim to denounce the weak situation of youth in the European labor-market and ensure that the EGP will procedure politically in order to guarantee the creation of jobs for young people at the European level.
On Monday, our last day together, we put all the effort to use the last chance to encourage and inspire each other for the future cooperation. Maria and Julius were elected as new coordinators. We worked on improving the structure of the group and agreeing on the format of our meetings. We also decided that we need to educate ourselves and no doubt others more about green economy. It means organize seminars, write articles, share links and ideas. The concept of green economy is eventually appearing as a strong alternative to conventional economy. We need to learn about it and help to develop the idea. All in all the task of our group is to promote green economy for the green future!