Latvian youngsters campaign for EU enlargement

  • 2000-11-02
  • Ilze Arklina
RIGA - Nov. 9, the 11th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, has been named Enlargement Day, a Europe-wide campaign organized by Young European Federalists.

European youth organizations are coming together to send a message on the need for swift and efficient EU enlargement, which needs concrete timetables and deadlines and demands a comprehensive reform of the foundations and institutions of the EU, Jeppe Linnet, a spokesman for the YEF in Latvia, told The Baltic Times.

To mark the day, the Latvian youth organization Klubs Maja (the House Club), a collective member of YEF, is planning to hold several activities in Riga to communicate the need for reform of the EU, which shall lead to the enlargement of the Union through admitting new member-states by 2003.

On Nov. 9, the House Club will host a stand in Kalku street in front of Hotel de Rome with information about the need for EU enlargement and reform. "We will raise a tent on the street decorated with EU colored balloons where people can get information materials and answers to their questions," Linnet said. "We will offer the public the opportunity to take part in various quizzes and competitions related to the EU, and we will also organize a debate at the Nordic Gymnasium.

The House Club is a youth organization with 150 members in 13 sections all over Latvia. "Our goal is to inform young people in Latvia about issues pertaining to the European Union in general, and we actively work for Latvia's integration into the EU," Linnet said. The YEF wants the EU to write a constitution and to become a federation as soon as possible. "We in Latvia are not so much into this federation thing, but we are working for the Baltics to become a members as soon as possible," Linnet said.

The House Club is a non-profit organization, getting sponsorship on a project basis, mainly from foreign embassies and the Soros foundation. "This time, we approached Latvian political parties for support," Linnet said. The Club asked the People's Party, Fatherland and Freedom and the Democratic Party to donate 100 lats each. "We didn't address the Latvia's Way Party because they said in advance they do not have any money," Linnet said.

While this is happening in Riga, similar activities are taking place all over Europe.

Together with the YEF members from the rest of Europe, the House Club will bring this message to the politicians coming to Nice in December for the EU summit.

The House Club's members range in age from 16 to mid 20s. Linnet, who studies anthropology at the Copenhagen University and claims to be the only non-Latvian member of the Club, said that he come to Latvia just to research the Club. "Usually very few common people are working toward the enlargement of the EU. Commonly it's a chop-down process," he said. Linnet stressed that the ability to gather information about the EU and create their own network of contacts serves as the motivating factor behind the youngsters involvement in the process.