Report on the Spring Federal Committee meeting 2011 in Budapest

Just after the seminar "Europe United, a tool for peace!" finished, 2011´s first Federal Committee (FC) meeting kicked off in the beautiful capital of Hungary, Budapest. From 1-3 April more than 60 representatives came together to discuss and decide on the formulation of resolutions and activities for JEF: JEF Policies. All of these participants made the event a success. The breath taking view from the conference room over the city and the great facilities of the venue, the European Youth Centre of the Council of Europe, might have contributed a crucial part to a great atmosphere among all participants.

Over 10 resolutions on topics such as the EU economic governance, roaming charges and the Arab uprisings were discussed. Also, the framework structure and consultation procedure for the organisation’s new Political Platform were agreed on, a common message for JEF’s Europe Day activities was adopted and JEF-Armenia was accepted as a candidate section. The organisation also took stock of its successful European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) lobby action rendering the instrument more democratic and user-friendly and started brainstorming about the topics and process to draft an ECI proposal advancing the federalist cause.

As one of the attendees commented enthusiastically at the end of the FC: “It was one of the best organised FCs that I experienced”. True she is! Groundbreaking work was done for the next six months in the run-up to the European Congress in Helsinki at the end of October.

Get some impression of the FC meeting in Budapest and have a look at the pictures on Flickr.