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Budget cuts in Council of Europe hit hard on youth organisations

The Joint Council on Youth of the Council of Europe decided in its bi-annual statutory meeting in Strasbourg to transfer the costs of the five European Youth Foundation Secretariat posts from the ordinary budget to that of the European Youth Foundation.

This decision of the Joint Council - composed of the Advisory Council on Youth and the Government representatives signatory to the Cultural Convention - was made under the pressure of a proposal coming from the new Secretary-General for budget cuts in all sectors. It significantly reduces the money allocated for youth organisations and was made upon the condition that the Secretariat of the Directorate of Youth and Sport of the Council of Europe checks the necessity of a statutory revision of the Foundation. The agreement also included a request that no more than 15% of the budget be allocated to staff costs in the future. 
 
The Joint Council agreed to recommend States to increase their "obligatory" contributions to the Foundation. This, however, seemed quite an unlikely option to most governments because of the budgetary strains affecting countries in a time of economic crisis. The Advisory Council on Youth of the Council of Europe regretted its decision in a statement outlining that "...these budget reductions have strongly affected the decision-making capacity of the co-management system".
 
The budget cuts, drastically decreasing the amount of money distributed to youth organisations by the institution, are occurring in times of preparation for reform in the continent's largest human rights watchdog. So as to allow the Secretary-General more flexibility  to follow specific priorities for the struggling institution, a proposal of a new priority pool of flagship projects has been put forward. The budget cuts affecting the different sectors of the institution are partly due to the need to finance such a priority pool. The Joint Council on Youth proposed a large Peace Ambassadors Project for the Secretary-General to consider when making the decision on which projects to choose from the intended priority pool.