What do a loud-mouthed English ladette, a svelte Ukrainian vamp, a dashing Polish casanova and a bagpipe-playing Frenchman all have in common? Bar-stool jokes aside, they're all members of YRN - the association of European regions' youth network. About 150 people meet annually to discuss how to use Europe to hoist them out of the economic doldrums. cafebabel.com caught up with them in Paris this DecemberCharlotte Kudé, 18, is unflinching, even intimidating as she delivers her welcome speech to a cavernous conference room of blinking euro-youths. At an age when many of us were busy smoking rollies and looking moody, she has managed to get herself elected as president of a youth network that represents 270 regions from 33 countries. Her audience do not hail simply from Milan, Frankfurt or Berlin, but from regions as diverse as the sunlight-shy Gavleborg in Sweden, the Atlantic archipelago of the Azores, and the eastern extremities of Georgia. This is Europe's real international generation - a bunch of twentysomethings who think little of jumping on a plane to Paris at a moment's notice, unfazed by a three-day conference held entirely in English, most wielding a command of at least two foreign languages. The post-erasmus society who have found themselves disenfranchised by the greed of middle-aged bankers are more than ready to utilise Europe to take back their futures.
Charlotte Kudé, 18, is unflinching, even intimidating as she delivers her welcome speech to a cavernous conference room of blinking euro-youths. At an age when many of us were busy smoking rollies and looking moody, she has managed to get herself elected as president of a youth network that represents 270 regions from 33 countries. Her audience do not hail simply from Milan, Frankfurt or Berlin, but from regions as diverse as the sunlight-shy Gavleborg in Sweden, the Atlantic archipelago of the Azores, and the eastern extremities of Georgia. This is Europe's real international generation - a bunch of twentysomethings who think little of jumping on a plane to Paris at a moment's notice, unfazed by a three-day conference held entirely in English, most wielding a command of at least two foreign languages. The post-erasmus society who have found themselves disenfranchised by the greed of middle-aged bankers are more than ready to utilise Europe to take back their futures.
