Abrahamsson speech at 25 BSPC

25th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference, Riga 29.08.2016Address by Anna AbrahamssonPresident of the Nordic Youth CouncilThank you for the opportunity to speak before such a distinguished audience, and especially with a theme as important as the one discussed here today.My name is Anna Abrahamsson, the President of the Nordic Youth Council, representing a platform gathering all political youth organizations in all Nordic countries and autonomous territories. We are a diverse crowd, reflecting all colours of the political spectrum. This is also what we see as our strength – despite different backgrounds, despite different political affiliations, there are a number of issues that bring us together, where common interests overlap.This is my first time at the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference, and I am happy to see the cooperation and lively debates ongoing. Mutual understanding and the seeking of solutions for shared challenges and interests are of all the more importance in times such as ours. I was invited to give an address on the Baltic Sea parliamentary cooperation today and in the future, from a youth perspective. Whereas there are a number of issues that could be discussed at great lengths, I will try to limit myself to raising a few core issues that we would like to highlight.Representing a youth council, I first and foremost must stress the topic serving as the theme for this conference: education and employment. For the youth, education and meaningful occupation is one of the burning issues of our time. In many ways, mine is the luckiest generation alive. We are healthier, wealthier and more educated than any generation before us. Yet, young people are concerned. Concerned about the economic situation in our part of the world; concerned with the educational and job opportunities at hand. They are concerned with how our societies are changing the world – and how the world is changing them.These are genuine and well-founded concerns. In most of our region, working life has changed drastically over the past decade. My generation is launched into a completely different reality than the one before us. We have grown up with turbulent economic development, combined with increased globalization and technological development. This is a game-changer, which have made the division between winners and losers in an ever more global economy sharper than ever. Young people have been hit harder by lack of jobs than the population overall. For many, uncertain careers is the new normal. It is important not to let such insecurities make us turn on each other. How to bridge this gap and provide more opportunities for all members of society remains an important task for the future.My second point relates to the immense pressure put on our future by our global footprint catching up on us. Our current way of life in our part of the world – our welfare, industries and skills – are heavily reliant on massive extraction of natural resources, which at the same time is causing a great threat to our well-being and to our nature. We can sense it in a changing climate, we can see it on the shores of the Baltic Sea, and we can feel it in our air quality. The effects and causes are linked to all of us; a sort of prisoner’s dilemma for which we need intense cooperation both today and for a long time to come, in order to succeed. The issue is all the more acute as more attention, also among us, turns towards the Arctic. We will need strong cooperation, unity above self-interest, in order to protect its fragile nature and manage potential resources sustainably. For us, this mission should not only be one of honour, but one of duty towards future generations.Finally, strong parliamentary cooperation is as strong as the democratic foundation it is based on. Democratic principles and institutions need to keep being nurtured at a grass-root level. We will need to further the involvement of all different members of society, especially those who have a hard time making their own voice heard as of now. A key factor is empowering youth and encouraging their democratic participation. In many countries in our region, the youth is becoming a demographic minority, while already being underrepresented in the decision-making institutions and in voting activity. We are seeing many young people feeling increasingly excluded from the political sphere and showing apathy towards democracy. This is a dangerous trend in times of radical and extreme ideas on the rise. More than that, it is an issue of rights, of democratic rights as human rights and rights of children and youth. I myself is perhaps a bad example, having the privilege to speak before you today. But it concerns every corner of society, from grass-root to international fora. I am yet to see a modern democracy be weakened by too much youth representation and inclusion – rather the opposite. Let me challenge you: Do try this at home.These are some of the – I believe – key challenges our region, and our part of the world are facing today and for time to come. These are also what I, as a young person, believe we will continue to need multinational cooperation, dialogue and mutual understanding for, in order to overcome the challenges. Isolationism is not the answer. It does not make us more competitive nor free; stop biological degradation or pollution; resolve conflicts; or make any country great again.For such future challenges, I believe we have by no means exhausted the possibilities within the parliaments of the Baltic Sea. At least, common challenges remain. And among us just now, we already have some of the countries and regions leading in innovation and competitiveness, others championing sustainability, some creatively finding new ways of inclusion and participation. By sustaining an active dialogue, unafraid of challenges, perhaps there is still much we can learn from each other.