PAL-TIN


The PAL-TIN Project is a large network of local youth and children’s councils throughout Romania. PAL-TIN was an initiative of the Bucharest-based MASTER Forum Association to develop local youth councils in Romania along the lines of the youth council charter adopted by the European Union. By 2007 the program included over 90 youth and child councils throughout Romania.

History

Following the popular uprising and overthrow of the country's communist dictatorship in 1989, a number of civic organizations were developed that focused on the promotion of democracy and the popular spread and implementation of democratic ideals. A number of these organizations banded together in the creation of an association called MASTER Forum focused on supporting the trends of building a civil society, initiatives of youth and youth associations. The founders consisted of European Union/Phare for Democracy Program, Solon Foundation from Switzerland, Fund for the Development of the Carpathian Euroregion, and the Civil Society Development Foundation.
Out of this forum came the PAL-TIN Project, the primary objective of which is the promotion of youth participation in public decisions about matters that concern them.
The initiative is developed along the lines of the EU youth council charter. Resolution 237 from 1992 of the Permanent Conference of Local and Regional Authorities in Europe adopted the Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life in which it is affirmed that: "municipalities and other territorial communities will create adequate institutional conditions for the participation of the young people in decision-making and debates on problems of interest to them... will create and support youth councils that function as a structure of active participation...".

Council Framework

The youth council framework was designed to serve as:
The PAL-TIN Project is able to support the individual youth councils through: