Secretary General’s report

Secretary General’s report

Danica Vihinen

May-November 2016

Dear members,

I want to start this report by thanking you all for entrusting me with heading the office of our organisation, it is an honour to be working for you and I enjoy it very much.

Since my appointment at the Congress in Vienna I have familiarised myself with the office management as well as the event management procedures. As of the end of September I have help with the day to day office management and event planning from the administrative assistant Foteini Lymperopoulou, who is an enormous asset in the office.

The new Bureau met for a planning weekend in Strasbourg on the fringes of the European Youth Event (EYE) and YO!fest in May, and organising that meeting was one of my first tasks after I took over in the office. Parallel to that I also finished the reporting on the Congress to our partners as well as planned the ALDE Summer Academy together with the Secretary General of Young Democrats for Europe, Mathieu Camescasse. Unfortunately, the Summer Academy was ultimately postponed to December due to factors independent of LYMEC.

Other events I have organised since May include the ELSN seminar Bologna, Copenhagen and Beyond (Brussels), the Young Leaders’ Meeting Leading for Liberalism (Dublin) and the Future of the European Neighbourhood Policy seminar (Bucharest), as well as the congress and anniversary celebrations. I am also handling the logistics of the LYMEC delegation to the ALDE Congress in December, and I was involved in planning and executing a Eurovision party in connection to the Brussels Pride in May, together with liberal partner organisations.

Besides the daily office management and organising events I am liaising with partners, attending meetings and seminars, representing LYMEC at various events and receiving member organisations at the office. Member organisations that I have met with in Brussels since May are FCY and KOL, JUNOS, JuLis, VU, JOVD and RU. Furthermore, I have met with the presidents of CUF and CS, the regional representative from CALD Youth in IFLRY and the new Executive Director of IFLRY. I have also met with the following organisations/companies: Novartis, YouthProAktive, European Young Innovators Forum, Stand Up for Europe, IRI, Ciudadanos, Bayer and European Youth Forum.

As I am based in Brussels, and since I have both experience of working with and contacts to the European Youth Forum (YFJ), I have continued as the LYMEC representative to the organisation. As I stated in my final Treasurer’s report the cooperation between the party political youth organisations within YFJ (PPYO’s) has increased and extended beyond the scope of just having regular meetings. During the EYE in Strasbourg we organised the second PPYO debate on the topic of extremism, we did a joint statement in favour of the Spitzenkandidaten process, and we had a joint social media campaign in favour of the UK staying in the European Union. The third PPYO debate, on the topic “EU in the world”, will take place in Cologne on November 4^th on the fringes of the federal committee of JEF and with support of the European Commission’s New Narratives programme.

I also represented LYMEC in an ad hoc group of YFJ member organisations that met with MEP Maria Joao Rodrigues (S&D) in late May and June and wrote a joint initiative on youth employment and the refugee crisis that MEP Rodrigues referred to in the June plenary of the European Parliament and presented to various commissioners.

As both the Secretary General, the Treasurer and both Internal Auditors are new in their positions, and since the changes to the ALDE Group Grant only occurred after the regular internal audit, we decided to have an interim internal audit in August to get everyone familiarised with the new situation. For the findings of the audit I refer you to the interim audit report, but from my side it was a nice possibility to introduce the office and our bookkeeping to the new internal auditors.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the president and the bureau for a successful first half year of their mandate, as well as to thank the internal auditors for good cooperation and my assistant Foteini for her great job. And last but not least, I wish all delegates an unforgettable Anniversary Congress. Enjoy!

Liberal regards,

Danica

Events attended: CIFE symposium dinner, Brussels; YO!Fest and Bureau Meeting, Strasbourg; ALDE-CALD Summit, Brussels; IRI Leadership and Excellence in Advanced Politics, Portorož; FNF Fellows dinner, Brussels; Ralf Dahrendorf Roundtable and FNF Euro-Greek youth Dialogue, Thessaloniki; New Skills Agenda Consultation, Brussels; AEGEE summer reception, Brussels; ELSN seminar, Brussels; Europride, Amsterdam; Interim Internal Audit, Brussels; YLM, Dublin; ELF GA, Brussels; YDE Congress, Paris; Future of the European Neighbourhood Policy, Bucharest; 3^rd PPYO debate and JEF Federal Commission, Cologne; LYMEC Congress, Tallinn.