The first day - the opening ceremony
Official opening of the European Youth Meeting 2010
As scheduled, the 6th European Youth Meeting was officially opened Wednesday morning (24th November) in the Polivalent Hall in Viale Aldo Moro 50, the headquarters of the Legislative Assembly of Emilia-Romagna with the inauguration of the UN and World Health Organization international photographic exhibition titled, 'Objective: people world', which presents 60 photos by 24 internationally renowned photographers on war, poverty, social exclusion and violence. For the occasion, the curator Romano Martinis intervened.
To the 240 young students gathered at the Meeting from all the countries of the European Union, as well as from Turkey and Norway, the President of the Legislative Assembly, Matteo Richetti addressed the opening speech, inviting them to fully experience this event that this year focused on the issues of poverty and participation, solidarity and social inclusion, putting at the center of the debates the persons and the community in which they live. "Your generation - Richetti said - is the one that encompasses all the nations which helped built Europe, and which has the task of building a single European nation. I hope that this Meeting can contribute to this objective, because it is the direction in which we strive to go. We expect days of intense work on important issues that call on all of us. It is not enough to be touched emotionally, but we must ask ourselves what can we do to make the change happen. And for this to happen - Richetti concluded - we must all push in the same direction as when you try to put back on the street a car that went off road.”
During the seminar titled "Ethics and solidarity in economy: a possible union?”, which was held during this opening day, Clara Velez Fraga of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) presented the campaign 'United Against Hunger' with which the FAO has launched a worldwide collection of signatures to urge governments to consider their priority the elimination of hunger in the world that has now reached one billion people. Symbol of the campaign, which raised nearly 3 million signatures, is a yellow whistle, which was distributed also to the participants at the Meeting, used to make noise on behalf of the voiceless persons.
Prof. Luisa Brunori, the Vice President of the Grameen Bank – the "Bank of the Poor", founded by the economist Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner, which is based on micro-credit granted on the confidence and low interest rate, which has reached 200 million people – announced at the opening of the sixth edition of the European Youth Meeting that the first Italian Office of the Grameen Bank will soon open in Bologna. "We are waiting to end the practice with the Bank of Italy - she explained - and we are confident that this will happen soon." Poverty has many faces, therefore the Grameen Bank - Brunori refered to the large audience of European youth - is present in developing countries, but also in developed countries like the United States and Norway.
Among the institutional rappresentatives present during the Opening ceremony of the event: Nora Malaj, Minister for Education of the Republic of Albania, Carola Reintjes, World Fairy Trade Organization (WFTO), Shamimur Rahman, from the Grameen Bank, Stefano Versari, ViceDirector of the Regional Department for Education and Massimo Palumbo, European Parliament Office in Italy.
The speeches
- Carola Reintjes - World Fair Trade Organization (.ppt 3853 kB)
- Clara Velez Fraga - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (.ppt 9265 kB)