Every fourth person in the world today is in the 15-30 age group. According to the UN estimates, this is the maximum number of young people ever to live in the world. One of the greatest challenges for youth population globally, is employment. In the EU the unemployment rate today is up to 15% while in the SEE region it is 31, 38%. There are 2, 5 times more unemployed people who are under 25, than their older colleagues.

60-80% of the SEE region young people want to leave their home countries and those who have their secondary education are the most threatened.

The young in this region are under-represented in the executive and legislative branches of government. How relevant are they to their countries is seen in the figures on how much the nominal governments invest in this population and how much they care about it. That is why the body that deals with the problems of the young was formed only about three months ago.

FIET/UNI Project for BiH, as a part of its activities in 2006, and with the support of the Financial Sector Union of Sweden, Finansforbundet, and Commerce Trade Union, PAM, Finland, decided to gather the young Trade Union activists from the Financial and Commerce sectors from the Western Balkans region. The aim was to give them an opportunity to exchange their experiences, discuss the challenges put before them, as Trade Union members and young people in general who are facing changing economies, such as transition, working in private sector and hard working conditions that leave them no time for private life or additional education.

Thirty young Trade Unionists from BiH, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro and Macedonia gathered at the conference where the colleagues from Finansforbundet, Sweden, joined them and contributed to the conference, drawing the parallel between the position of the young people in EU and this region.

CONCLUSIONS of The Regional Youth Conference:

1. In the countries of the region, the young people under age of thirty are under-represented in the Trade Union, and the number of them ranges from 10-17%. The greatest problem with organizing the young people in the Union is their lack of interest, which is a global issue, as well as the prejudices that young people have on the Union movement in this region. The problems with organizing in all Trade Unions in the region are almost identical and are mostly founded on the aggravating circumstances that are specific to the private sector, and it is exactly this sector where young people are most likely to find a job. The Union structure of each of the countries present should focus their activities towards organizing the young, by means of various specially designed and planned campaigns.
2. The organizing was found a priority in all Unions whose representatives were present at the conference. The organizing in multi-national companies requires high correlation of the Trade Unions in the region, and therefore the future engagement of the Unions, as well as of the UNI as the federation they belong to, should aim at effective networking of the young coordinators in the region in order to create a joint strategy of organizing in multi-national companies and beyond. With financial difficulties of the Union in their minds, the participants expect and hope for the support from their colleagues from Europe and world, unified in UNI.
3. Concerning the issue of young people in the decision-making bodies of the Trade Union, the participants carried out a thorough survey of the current situation, which is to some degree very similar. The young people are organized in Youth Sections through which they accomplish their voting rights in their Union bodies. However, the lack of interest for an active engagement, the lack of free time as well as the bad image the Trade Unions in the region have, still repulse the young people from Union career and their active engagement as well. In the forthcoming period, the young will aim at wining the names for their colleagues in order for them to take active part in the Union as well as in the management. That should be one of the basic priorities towards which the future mutual activities should be directed.
4. The participants at the conference considered their part in the global Trade Union movement, along with the cooperation among their Trade Unions in the Western Balkans region. The trade unions from Europe put lot of efforst to organize young members in order to keep the present high level of the services to their members while at the same time Trdae unions in SEE countries try to organize young members in order to secure the funds that would able them to provide the services to their members. This is only difference in the approaches to recruitment of young workers.
5. This region is very important for the global Trade Union movement which is based on the fact that the representative of this region is in the Executive Boards of UNI Youth and UNI Trade. The new memberships potentials that this region has in, as well as the enthusiasm and willingness to work are unquestionable. Still, greater engagement of the young in UNI is required as well. Unfortunately, the financially powerless Trade Unions are not able to support their representatives on their own. Therefore, the participants of the conference hope for support from their colleagues from European Trade Unions, appealing to their solidarity, for the voices of young Trade Unionists to be heard in the global Trade Union movement.
6. Each participant expressed their gratitude to both the Trade Unions, which made the conference possible (PAM, Finland and Finansforbundet, Sweden), and Trade Unions and UNI Youth who have supported their union activities.
7. A global action is the only correct answer to frequent changes on the labor market in general and the participants are more than aware of their part in it.
8. The participants showed their readiness and will for future active and mutual engagement in recruiting more young people in the Trade Union, their active engagement in management and decision-making bodies of the Union along with their promotion in the global Trade Union movement. Only the establishing of effective and systematic network can render this possible. For this reason, the participants deem this conference as the first step towards establishing the youth unionists` network of Financial and Commerce sectors from the Western Balkans region. This network depends on the personal engagement of each of its members as well as on the support from UNI Youth and related Unions, to which the participants look forward.
9. The participants fully supported the efforts of young people in France and wished them success in the struggle for their employment rights.
10. The young participants laid the foundations for the future cooperation also at the informal gatherings during the conference.