Asiago: Europe Direct Youth Meeting - Press Release 28 November 2022

Press Release of GAL MONTAGNA VICENTINA of 28 November 2022.

It was held last Friday, November 25, in Asiago a meeting with the young people of the GAL area to collect proposals and ideas on issues related to the mountain. Bringing Europe to mountain areas: this is the objective of the project that sees young people from the Veneto mountains as protagonists, on the initiative of the EUROPE DIRECT Centre "Montagna Veneta", together with the Prealpi e Dolomiti LAG, UNCEM Veneto and some "antenna" partners in the area, including the Montagna Vicentina LAG.

The initiative consists of a series of participatory meetings in some symbolic places of the Veneto mountains aimed at the younger generations and is aimed at making young people aware of the European platform EYY- European Year of Youth as well as the opportunities offered by the latter and by the EUROPE DIRECT centers.

At the same time, the aim of the course is to make young people from mountain areas reflect on some significant issues for these territories, as well as to motivate them to research and propose ideas and solutions to be implemented in their local context. Rural-mountain areas are in fact - as we all know - fragile territories, with marked characteristics of marginality, demographic imbalance and economic diversification, in which there is often a lack of attractiveness of services (cultural, recreational, social) offered to citizens, especially younger people.

So how can mountain areas be made more attractive? What are the proposals for greater active integration of young people? What are the functional services to animate places and structures at the service of public interests? And again, how to bring the European issues of "social inclusion", "digital EU" and "Green Deal" within the most peripheral areas?

The meetings of the project want to encourage the young participants to bring their vision and make their voices heard. The contributions collected will be coordinated in a summary document that will then be delivered by the young people themselves to the institutions during a final event scheduled for December 19th.

"We welcomed with pleasure the proposal to become an "antenna" of the European Union on the territory, just as we are pleased to have hosted, in the European Year of Youth, this day of discussion and sharing. This is a precious opportunity to incorporate the point of view of young people on issues such as depopulation, inclusion, attractiveness and welfare according to a "bottom-up" approach, activities that we are also carrying out on a wide range - in view of the 2023-2027 programming - involving large sections of local stakeholders," underlines the President of the LAG Montagna Vicentina, Dino Panozzo.

The project also takes advantage of the active role of UNCEM, the Union of Municipalities, Communities and Mountain Authorities, both at national and regional level. "We are pleased to promote this path hinged on the mountain territory, aimed at the younger generations - underlines Ennio Vigne, President of UNCEM Veneto - Young people are the future of our territory and their involvement is of vital importance, as well as to give a clear reading of the present, also to envisage significant future intentions to be implemented in the welfare of mountain areas. It is right that they themselves imagine the territory and shape it; We need to listen to them because they will be the real protagonists of tomorrow and because the very needs of mountain territories have changed".

This is the complete calendar of meetings, by invitation, planned within the project:

• 28.10 Loc. Agre BL (LAG Prealpi e Dolomiti e Alto Bellunese)
• 19.11 S. Anna d'Alfaedo (LAG Baldo Lessinia)
• 25.11 Asiago (GAL Montagna Vicentina)
• 19.12 Final event in the Belluno area