From the 21st to the 22nd of April, the Youth Forum held its spring Council of Members (COMEM) in Brussels, during which more than 100 delegates from Member Organisations voted on two policy resolutions focusing on conditions of LGBTQI in Turkey and the arbitrary detention of gay and bisexual people in Chechnya.

The COMEM is an amazing gathering of youth representatives from across Europe, and the platform continues to grow! Congratulations to the Polish National Youth Council (PROM), that is now a full member of the platform and also to National Youth Council of Hungary (NIT) that was voted to be an observer member.

One of the highlights of the COMEM was the election of the delegates of the Advisory Council on Youth of the Council of Europe. The list of representatives to the AC on Youth will soon be available on the Youth Forum’s website.

The Youth Forum is also delighted to announce that Anna Widegren will soon be leading the Youth Forum Secretariat in Brussels, taking over the role of Secretary General from Allan Päll. The European Youth Forum extends great gratitude to Allan for all his passion, great dedication and amazing work for the organisation.

Many updates were given to members throughout COMEM on the work being carried out by the Youth Forum and the progress that the organisation has made over the past months. The Progress Report that was presented and the 2016 Annual Report can be found online.

This Spring COMEM was also an opportunity to bring the focus to the Youth Forum members’ work. Organisations were invited to showcase their innovative projects and ideas during the “Made in MOs session”, which inspired debate on several topics and gave input to the work of the Youth Forum on policy and advocacy processes through policy commissions.

Pierre Bosser from InternsGoPro came to present "Transparency at Work" - a 3-year campaign to co-create the largest database on young people working conditions and identify the companies that guarantee their professional development. Find more information here.

The evening before the COMEM, the Youth Forum and the Committee of Regions hosted the #YouthUp Gala, the biggest gathering of European young leaders, where city representatives called on city leaders across Europe to foster local youth participations.