Canterbury Politics Student Attends European Parliament as British Representative in Conference on Youth Unemployment

Between the 4^th and the 8^th November 2013, Oliver Fawcett, a second year Politics student here at CCCU, attended the European Parliament (EP) in Brussels to locate solutions to the significant problem of youth unemployment in the EU . He was joined by Martin Schulz, President of the EP, Isabelle Durant, Vice-President to the EP, officials from the European Commission and various other MEPs from across the 28 EU Member States.

(there is Oliver on the left!)

His role was to come up with proposals to encourage the employment of young people, which he presented to the press, some MEP’s and other delegates from the Member States. He presented his findings from his own research on how this issue could be addressed and resolved. This involvement with the Agora will now see him working with the EP, the British government and other EU member states to tackle the issue and implement policy at a national, regional and local level, across the whole of the EU. Specifically, Oliver will work closely with two EP committees, Employment & Social Affairs and Culture & Education, to ensure that the proposals are followed through and to make further recommendations to the MEPs as to what the next steps will be.

Describing his time in Brussels, Oliver said “I found the experience to be truly one of a kind. To be able to act as a representative for young people, from across the UK and all different backgrounds, and present views which experts in the field consider to be of importance, is just incredible. No word, no emotion can describe it”.