Building Europe’s future

If you have ever wondered how you’ll make a meaningful living, find it difficult to describe your work, worry about your future or wonder whether you will ever have a say in the decisions that affect us all you are struggling with the same challenges that thousands of other young Europeans struggle with every day.

A brand new initiative run in partnership with the European Commission wishes to tackle these and other issues. Its first acheivement? To identify the problem and give it a name: EdgeRiders. People riding the edge to the future – transitioning to a future with more opportunities for young creative Europeans.

“The journey starts by coming together” reads the project website. “See what the most creative and generous young people in Europe are up to, get in touch with them, get inspiration as to where you can go next. Inspire others. Share the story of how you are transitioning towards the future: it might help others in their own journeys”.

The idea behind the project, which is yet to be officially launched, is that a whole generation of Europeans may not be achieving its full potential. Young people tend to be excluded from labour markets; let down by an education system that seems not to be able to help them achieve full autonomy; estranged from traditional political participation channels; too often marginalised and stigmatised into a social problem themselves.

Yet, this same generation displays brilliant examples of creativity, social innovativeness, attitude for collaboration and sharing and generosity. By making use of these abilities, many young people are building new ways to make the transition from adolescence to a full-fledged adult life; they are effectively building the world we all will live in tomorrow.

Edgeryders aims to engage them, and every person of any age who is interested in collaborating, in building a shared vision of how we, as a society, could work together to achieve this transition for everybody. The results of the exercise will be presented to the European Commission and the Council of Europe’s member states in a conference to take place in June 2012.

Edgeryders is a joint project of the Council of Europe and the European Commission. It is meant as a diverse, constructive interaction channel between European young people and their democratic institutions, and designed along the principle of Internet-enabled massive open collaboration. Its goal is to produce a shared vision of how Europe’s young citizens could claim a stronger influence on our common future – and a larger share of the social responsibility that goes with it.

The Council of Europe welcomes participation from local governments and other public institutions, third sector and business organisations, citizen groups and individuals.

For information contact Alberto Cottica at alberto.cottica@coe.int.