On the 25th of November, two delegates of Kolping Youth Europe participated in a dialogue session on the European Green Deal with Frans Timmermans, Vice President of the European Commission. The dialogue session was initiated by the COMECE Youth Platform – an organization closely cooperating with Kolping Youth Europe – as part of an interfaith youth initiative.
The digital meeting started with a video statement from Robberta Metsola, Vice President of the European Parliament, in which she highlighted the need for CO2 reduction and committed to keep listening to young people. In another statement, Imam Ajmal Masroor presented a broad range of Islamic proposals for sustainable behaviour such as not being wasteful, increasing walking and cycling, and reducing car use.
In advance of the dialogue session, interfaith working groups prepared concrete proposals on five thematic areas related to the European Green Deal. These proposals were presented to Vice President Frans Timmermans who commented on these ideas especially with regards to their feasibility. This resulted in an interactive discussion on climate neutral and social housing, the implementation of an eco-label on the carbon footprint of products, the development of a European corporate social responsibility framework, and partnerships with faith-based organizations on environmental education.
“The dialogue session with Vice President Frans Timmermans focused on topics that are highly relevant for Kolping and will be an inspiration for our future work”, concluded Larissa Florysiak, Kolping Youth Germany’s advisor on youth policy, who participated in the meeting together with Kolping Youth Europe’s president Sven Messing. A recording of the meeting is available online.
Sven Messing, Germany