On October 15 and 16 2010 in Sofia was held the final conference of the Women's Alliance for Development (WAD) project “Young people - Agents of Community Development”, funded by Youth in Action Programme of the EC. Participants in the conference entitled "Young people - Agents of Community Development”, were young people between 18 and 30, students participating in formal and informal groups from Sofia, Pernik, Blagoevgrad, Silistra, Kavarna Kardjali, Smolyan, Pleven, Burgas, Montana, Veliko Tarnovo and Plovdiv.

As a result of the foregoing, during the presentations, discussions in small groups and joint discussion at the end of the conference, a number of recommendations for action and implementation of policies on youth issues at local and national level were derived, with emphasis on the opportunities offered by EU membership of Bulgaria Strategy Europe 2020 of the European Union. The main recommendations are focused on what can be done to attract and retain young people in their hometowns and in Bulgaria and what programs and policies for their future in their own country may be represented and consulted with them.

Particular attention was paid to the youth policy of the EU and its main areas where young people are a special target group, are affected by EU measures in particularly large degree - education, social policy and employment. European youth policy in the narrow sense, refers to measures and promoting activities to the EU in order to support cross-border youth work and youth exchanges and to promote European identity among young people. EU plays a major role in harmonizing the legal and administrative provisions of Member States in the field of youth policies for the promotion of mobility and implementation of European Voluntary Service for intercultural training and involvement of young people in social development.

RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE NATIONAL YOUTH MEETING ON DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF POLICIES FOR YOUTH

October 2010 SOFIA

In the field of legislation:

1. Accelerated development of ACT for Youth;

2. Participation of a wide range of stakeholders, especially representatives of youth organizations in the drafting of future legislation on youth and MONM Interministerial Commission examination in the Committee on Education and the plenary of the National Assembly;

3. Changes in the Education Act, Act on the levels of education, General Education Minimum and Curriculum and Higher Education Act in the direction of greater coherence between education and the subsequent realization of young people, facilitation of international exchanges, increasing the competitiveness of education;

4. Involving young people in discussion of proposals for the law to seek feedback when it comes to this working phase;

5. Presence of young people at meetings of the Committee of Education in the examination of relevant bills to be heard by all MPs, members;

6. Organization of public hearings with broad representation of youth organizations of bills before they are sent to the Committee of Education of the National Assembly;

7. Accelerated development and adoption of the Law on Volunteering;

8. Accelerated adoption of the Report on Youth by the National Assembly, as it not only find facts, but develops specific policies in the field of increasing youth employment, leaving the young people from the “grey” economy and stimulate business for young people. Determination of annual priority or priorities in each of the reports after the resolution of basic things related to the respective priority, formulate and defend a new priority.

9. Adoption of the National Youth Strategy 2010 - 2020 by the National Assembly in order not to place youth in the background and for the problems to be solved with temporary funds and to implement and monitor a national youth policy.

In the field of young people filing the public space, civic and political participation:

1. Youth activities must be adequately resourced. The budget for youth activities must contribute to the development of youth non-governmental structures and to develop the activities of non-governmental youth sector. One of the goals is also the raising funds through off-budget mechanisms, for example by creating a separate fund to raise revenues from gambling, state lotteries, lottery, which will encourage participation in civic initiatives and civic education of young people;

2. Political parties to encourage participation of young people in their structures and initiatives beyond the purely technical and volunteer work, educate them and give them opportunities for expression and development

3. To create institutions “Youth ombudsman” at national level;

4. To increase the number of young people engaged in civil society structures (the currently employed are only 2%), through the development of youth projects and initiatives to promote youth activities, providing opportunities for development and expression, use of social networks;

5. Encouraging employers and businesses to pay attention to the experience of young people in civic initiatives and projects in addition to their professional experience and qualifications;

6. Conducting information and awareness campaigns and activities in schools to familiarize young people from an early age with the benefits and opportunities for citizen participation;

7. To encourage and educate the Bulgarian media to cover the youth policy, activities and initiatives;

8. Create and regularly convene a national youth forum as a place for discussion, consultation, sharing and dissemination of information resources.

In the field of education:

1. Improvement and modernization of school facilities, especially in small and remote settlements and the central schools;

2. Lifelong learning for the teachers;

3. Award and broad public discussion of periodic reports on the state of education and forecasting processes in the medium and in the long term;

4. Expanding opportunities for language learning in schools by creating conditions for learning other languages than German, English and French;

5. Introduction of interactive civic education in schools;

6. Introduction of intercultural education in schools, especially in areas with ethnic minorities, having studied folklore articles related to ethnic and cultural, in order to help build common values between different groups of students;

7. Facilitate the recognition of credits and degrees from foreign universities in Bulgaria;

8. Facilitating the procedures for making student loans;

9. Establishment of municipal level, bringing together opportunities for informal education, and a register for such opportunities in the municipality;

10. Monitoring and evaluation of the introduction of national qualifications framework, which must respond to the European Qualifications Framework and the development of credit system in vocational education and training

11. Introduction of intercultural education in schools, especially in areas with ethnic minorities, having studied folklore articles related to ethnic and cultural, to help build common values between different groups of students;

12. Facilitate the recognition of credits and degrees from foreign universities in Bulgaria;

13. Facilitating the procedures for making student loans;

14. Establishment of municipal level, bringing together opportunities for informal education, and a register of such opportunities in the municipality;

15. Monitoring and evaluation of the introduction of national qualifications framework, which must respond to the European Qualifications Framework and the development of credit system in vocational education and training;

In the area of youth employment, economic activity, entrepreneurship and social policy:

1. Introduce tax breaks for companies that hire young people without experience;

2. Creation of career centers and business incubators to promote youth entrepreneurship and increase youth interest in developing EU projects and other funding;

3. Creating opportunities for vocational guidance for young people about where and what they can learn;

4. Increasing the effectiveness of school and student internships, especially for secondary schools by introducing external monitoring and evaluation, and incentives for providers of apprenticeships;

5. Building effective interaction between business and education through extracurricular activities, establishment of laboratory and research facilities, additions to the material from the real business practice, guest speakers and more.

6. Improving sports facilities in schools and universities and improve opportunities for sport for young people without giving advantage to certain sports;

7. Acceleration of the deinstitutionalization of disabled children and young people placed in institutions by providing services in the community.

In the field of youth policy at local level:

1. Municipalities to promote effective interaction between community centers and schools in their territory so as to enrich and deepen the learning process, the formal and informal education;

2. Introduction of municipal funding and grants for youth activities and projects;

3. Wide citizen monitoring and evaluation on how they spend municipal funds for youth activities;

4. Effective control of the rules of order and safety for children and adolescents;

5. Creation, implementation and evaluation of municipal strategies for youth at every stage from which to engage young people themselves.

In the field of culture, sport and leisure:

1. Create more opportunities for participation of young artists in various fields and promote their work through specialized publications and galleries, days of youth work, local, national and international festivals, etc.;.

2. Providing access for young people to sport centers - municipal or public-private partnerships, building outdoor sports grounds;

3. Making full use of the system of twin cities for cultural exchange and learning about cultural heritage and contemporary art of other nations;

4. Art and culture to be closer to young people through traveling exhibitions and performances in smaller cities and schools;

5. Ennoblement of urban and suburban environment, green areas and parks, pedestrian zones and bicycle lanes for cycling long distances, enabling full leisure.

In the field of volunteering:

1. Need of a definition of information and promotion of youth volunteering through the development and adoption of the Law on Volunteering;

2. Issuance and recognition of certificates (voluntary licenses) on volunteerism and respect for experience as a service or additional points for employment in government institutions;

3. Providing information about volunteering opportunities in Bulgaria and abroad and promoting youth volunteering as young people and among their parents and teachers;

4. Working to change attitudes among young people, that community work is punishment and negative attitude towards it.