Posted on 21 February 2014
The archival fonds of the European Coordination Bureau of International Youth Organisations has been digitised and can now be consulted online on the website of the Historical Archives of the European Union.
The fonds of the Bureau has been transferred to the Historical Archives of the European Union in Florence in 2002. It is part of a group of archival fonds coming from the various youth organisations working and supporting European integration and the European institutions before their merge in 1996 in the “Youth Forum of the European Communities” (YFEC). The archival fonds comprises 15 files covering the years 1972 to 1997. These files contain documents pertaining to the meetings of the statutory bodies and the training seminars notably with youth organisations form Central and Eastern Europe in 1995. The archives also contains numerous publications and information circulars for member organisations: BEC-INFO and Flash BEC, and documents the merger of 1996 to the Youth Forum of the European Communities. The predominant language of the documents is English, some documents are written in French and Spanish.
The European Coordination Bureau of International Youth Organisations was founded in 1971 in Brussels as an organizational platform for international non-governmental youth organisations who had federated in 1969 in a liaison bureau for the youth movements. Member organisations grew quickly from initially seven founding organisations in 1980 to 30 youth organisations. The aim of this platform was to coordinate the activities of its member organisations, notably in the areas of information, training and relations with non-member youth organisations all around the world.
Every two years, the Bureau organised a General Assembly of its member organisations which also elected its Presidency and an Executive Committee. The Bureau collaborated closely with the Council of European National Youth Committees (CENYC) and kept close contact with the Council of Europe and the institutions of the European Communities. (CENYC) and kept close contact with the Council of Europe and the institutions of the European Communities.
Consult the digitised BEC fonds