11/08/1998

Mr. President, Honourable Presidency, Ladies and Gentleman, Dear Collegues,

first of all on behalf of the new Hungarian Government I would like greet All of You wishing a good result of this very important Conference.

Some of you might know it was the last election just two month ago in Hungary and Fidesz have got the majority of the votes. This is a political party if s name in English: Federation of Young Democrats - which last ten years history refers to some of our topics, like youth participation, fight against social exclusion of the youngsters, autonomous civic society. Ten years ago Fidesz was a radical youth organization, based on the human co-operation of young students who recognized that without freedom and independency Hungary lost the possibility of the better future. In that time Hungary was an over-controlled and over-burocratized country on the Eastern side of Berlin Wall. Something has started ten years ago, if you want a kind of a revolution of the young people who were brave enough to ask questions of the human rights, who were brave enough to fight for more and more freedom for everyone and who had courage to show to that very militant power what does it mean to think and act freely.

Hungary and her neighbours became free countries, the Berlin Wall collapsed and for now we nearly forgot our nearly past. All in those countries from Budapest to Prague, from East- Berlin to Sofia, from Warsaw to Bucharest the youngsters were the street fighters of the barricades, and those who renamed the things. They were the creators of the new hopes of my country and the region.

Ladies and Gentleman,

Hungary became a Republic in 1990, the last Soviet troops left my country in 1991. We joined to the greater European organizations like Council of Europe, we declared to join to NATO and now it has just started the official process with the European Union's membership. The country wish to be an equal member of the greater family of the nations based on Peace, cooperation and friendship.

Dear-Collegues,

So, when some weeks ago we started to implement the program of the Government, we remembered that the youngsters could be the motor of changing. This means a big responsibility for us. But at the same time we know well for most of the people of the society and most of the analists, think that it is just an imagination. One of the Hungarian youth researcher wrote an article some years ago and it had a very strange title: "The youngsters are the looser of the political and economical transition of Hungary". He showed the facts and figures. He analized them. The conclusions were very very hard.

More than 400 thousands of children are living in very bad life conditions because of the poverty of their family. Nearly 30 of the age groups between 18-24 hasn't get a job. There are deep problems in the education system. The main social educators are not working very well. In every fourth Hungarian family has deep problems with the partnership of the parents and they divorced in average 4 years. There are drug abusers increasing among the youngsters and nowadays it has heard that every 5th students in the grammar schools has some experience with the different drugs. The youth organizations are not working so well.

Might I say it is a tragical situation? Does it mean we have to spend more and more money for the social benefits?

I would say not. If we we'd like to give the right answer for the challenges of the future we have to change our philosophy.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

the new Hungarian Government considers youth as a resource not as a problem. Being still in the middle of a long transition process and with enormous problems with the regard of quality of education and vocational training, employment and marginalization. one possible answer could of course to be tempted to build a youth policy according to the most burning problems of the day.

But this is not a good idea. It is the origin of identifying youth with violence, drug abuse, nihilism and political apathy. Particulary because there are social indications pointing in this direction, this must to be done. Young people at national, European and global level represent the sum of what we can expect of the future: what they won't do, will not to be done, what they don't learn, will not be known, what they don't create, will not be created.

To have such a vision about young people as our most precious human resource does not mean to belittle the problems young people face today. It only gets the perspective right: all youth policies deal in the end with our courage to face to future.

Now it is the end of this century. We are just recognize how difficult problems have to be solve. Who can give the night answers for that very new questions? Sometimes we can feel, the World have changed a lot. There are so many new questions and sometimes we can feel, we as adults are not to be wise enough to give the right answers. Sometimes it is quite clear they are the young generations who have the possibility to give the right answers, to find the relevant methods for the problem solving. There are the high technology of the communication for example and a new multicultural world sourrends us and the youngsters are very autonomous creators on that that field. If you just look seriously you can easy recognize they are not only a passive consumers of the such things Internet, E-mail or others, they have very creative realition with the world using this instruments.

So, this is the challenge of a youth policy and this is the responsibility of the policy makers. Help them to be prepared for such a responsible social role.

Dear Colleges,

The Hungarian Government main principles according to which the new youth policy will be adjusted as follows:

• Protection of the childhood
  It is important that the government ensures the security and happiness during the childhood with regards their physical and mental health. It is essential to strengthen the role of the secure family and to help those children who are obliged to live without parents successfully integrate into the society.
• Programme for 'Your Future'
  This is a governmental programme based on the activity, creativity and ideas of the 14-25 generations. The essence of this micro-project programme is to assist young people to find the solutions to their own problems. We believe that a new decentralized youth service system will be able to give financial support and infrastructure for their projects what they find on their own way. It could be a 'learning by doing! system for informal social education of the social responsibility.
• 'In Europe and into Europe'
  The government considers inevitable to help the youth and young adults prepare to live as a responsible European citizen in an integrated European Union, to encourage young people to participate in youth meetings and programmes to exchange experience and to learn different solutions from each other wherever they live. It is because whole Europe and the whole world in a transition period which changes of the contents such as phenomena like citizenship. There not so far the time when it will be a very concrete and positive question: to be a good Hungarian citizen it means to be a European and to be European it means to know your greater region.
• Combat discrimination and incidents that endanger secure lifestyles
  It means many things, mainly leading towards programs based on positive attitudes, preventive work, assistance in critical life situations and reintegrating the endangered into the society. This program must have tools to decrease juvenile criminality and to stop the increasing drug abuse.

This four main elements of the Government program for the next years will be co-ordinating by an absolutely new Ministry of Youth and Sport which never was before in the Hungarian youth policy's history. It is a serious plan. We have four month to build up it's new and competent structure. Politically it is easy to say: we would like to make the planes based on the co-operation of the youngsters: a structure which can be compatible for the needs of the next century. On the praxis, yes, it could be harder. We would like to co-operate with the representatives of the Hungarian youth as much as it possible because we have to build up the new structure with them for them, for our common future.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

On this conference we feel that there are not countries now like lonely islands. We have different geographical positions and historically determinations, different traditions and different needs but at the same time we the common responsibility for our common future. We have international intergovernmental organizations who could help us to meet each other to exchange ideas. The youth work is one of the tool for the better future. The cooperation on the youth field is one of the chances to feel we can cooperate with each other without any limitation of fearness or prejudices.

I think the newly planned Ministry of Youth and Sport have stabile fundament of the international relations for the future based on the commitments on the youth field:

• It was implemented of the International Chart of the Rights of the Children in 1991
• We are fully backing the 'Agenda 2000' of the United Nations
• We are an active member of the Council of Europe and it was created the new European Youth Centre in Budapest in 1995
• We are actively preparing for the youth programs of the European Union, like Leonardo, Socrates, Youth for Europe
• We have number of bilateral cultural and youth agreements and we'd like to sign more for the better future cooperation.

This international connections are very important not only to be feel we're not alone. Which is more important, these meetings, exchanges and concrete cooperations helps us and for the Hungarian youth to find the new identity in the World of the human beings. Without to know more about the others we can't know enough ourselves.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

What we have to do and to solve in our own country is enormous. We all will do it, learning from our neighbours, being conscious of our identity, of our own force and necessarily, within the limitation of our economic conditions.

But to build up and keep democratic structures of decision making and to create real possibilities for participation is not a money question, to recognize the power of youth associations and networks within the civil society is nothing the Minister of Finance will have to spend a penny on. To foster community development and the autonomy of young people is what we believe in and to help setting the energies of youth free within the society they live in is exactly what we need now and not only in Hungary.

There is so much to learn and there is so much going on in the field of youth. There is the time to learn more each other. It is also an enormous chance to point to the qualifies of youth work and informal education for the good citizenship. In making an effort in this field we are both economically responsible and politically wise.

There the reason why Hungary is behind the 'Agenda 2000' of the United Nations and will do what is in its possibilities to help with any proposals dealing with the improvement of the quality of researches on young people at global level, with improved co-operation between the regions of the world and simply with the empowerment of young people everywhere in the world.

Many thanks to the Portuguese Government for the excellent hospitality, many tanks to the Secretary General of the United Nations for the invitations, many thanks for them to opening this door for better future.