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Sixteen youth movements, fifteen countries, and the ambition to build a new political community across the continent. European Young Conservatives (EYC), the new youth organisation of the European conservative family, was officially launched in Rome, on the stage of Fenix.
It is no coincidence that this new chapter began at Fenix. The national festival of Gioventù Nazionale, held from 16 to 20 September at Rome’s Laghetto dell’EUR, chose “The Time for Courage” as the theme of this year’s edition, bringing together political leaders, intellectuals, journalists and representatives of Europe’s younger generations over five days.
It was against this backdrop that, on Friday 18 September at 8 p.m., the panel “The Redemption of Europe’s Youth” hosted the official presentation of European Young Conservatives.
Taking part in the event were ECR Party President Adam Bielan, Secretary General Antonio Giordano, Gioventù Nazionale’s International Secretary Maicol Pizzicotti Busilacchi and Aleksandra Mazur-Groszkowska of PiS Youth, with journalist Alice Carrazza moderating the discussion.
EYC brings together sixteen youth organisations from fifteen countries, with the aim of creating a permanent platform for cooperation among the younger generations of the European conservative family. At the end of the event, representatives of the participating organisations signed the European Young Conservatives Manifesto, formally marking the beginning of this new political project.
The organisation will be led by Maicol Pizzicotti Busilacchi, International Secretary of Gioventù Nazionale and President-designate of EYC, while Aleksandra Mazur-Groszkowska will serve as Secretary General.
“I would like to thank the sixteen youth movements from fifteen countries that answered our call and made a decisive contribution to building this community,” Pizzicotti Busilacchi said. He also stressed the support the project has received from the leadership of the European conservative family: “I would also like to thank ECR Party President Adam Bielan and Secretary General Antonio Giordano for their constant support, as well as Executive Vice-Presidents Carlo Fidanza, Marion Maréchal and George Simion, who strongly believed in this youth project.”
The creation of EYC also bears a strong Italian imprint. “My thanks also go to Gioventù Nazionale President Fabio Roscani, who was the first to give impetus to the international vocation of our youth movement,” Pizzicotti Busilacchi added.
European Young Conservatives, however, is not starting from scratch. The project seeks to inherit a political tradition that began more than thirty years ago and carry it into a profoundly changed Europe.
“A story that began more than thirty years ago, whose legacy we are taking up today. The same spirit and the same values upheld by the ECR family, but with renewed organisation and determination.”
This is precisely the central idea behind the project: to build a European dimension without erasing national identities. EYC aims to allow youth movements already active in their respective countries to meet, coordinate and bring their political battles to the European and international stage.
“With EYC, we are once again giving a home to the many young European conservatives who want to promote their ideas not only in their respective nations, through their own youth movements, but also at European and international level,” Pizzicotti Busilacchi explained.
This is also where the birth of EYC intersects with the broader political meaning of Fenix. A festival organised by an Italian national youth movement became the place where sixteen organisations chose to establish a common European structure. It was a step that brought the international dimension directly into an event rooted in Italian youth political activism.
ECR Party President Adam Bielan also linked the creation of the organisation to the need to prepare a new generation of European political leaders, while Secretary General Antonio Giordano pointed to EYC as a place where the next generation of European conservatives can grow and develop.
For Pizzicotti Busilacchi, however, the perspective is above all generational.
“Once again, we launch our challenge to the stars: the future of our Europe will inevitably be decided by the young people of today. This is why it is essential that we stand together in this common challenge and shared destiny.”
The President-designate of EYC ultimately brought that responsibility back to the very word chosen by Gioventù Nazionale to define this year’s edition of Fenix: courage.
“This is the responsibility we feel and the responsibility we have decided to take upon ourselves, with courage — as this edition of Fenix reminds us.”
A new chapter for European Young Conservatives therefore begins in Rome. And it begins at Fenix, a place where, for five days, the debate about the future was entrusted above all to those who will be called upon to build it.