Today the Stockholm conference on the future of EU youth policy concludes. Youth delegates from EU Member States, EFTA and candidate countries have worked alongside Directors-General and policy makers to discuss the substance of a future framework for Youth Policy cooperation in the EU for the years 2010-2018.

- Youth policy touches upon some of the most pressing concerns of our times: youth unemployment, improvement of education and health. This conference was an example of how young people, youth organisations and officials can work together. I believe we have taken a significant step closer to the completion of the new framework of cooperation in the youth field. We need to ensure that the future of Europe is in safe hands. We stand before a task that is too important to be allowed to fail, says Nyamko Sabuni, Minister for Integration and Gender Equality.
 
Tine Radinja, President of the European Youth Forum:
- We have long been strong advocates of structured dialogue that will not artificially divide, but rather bring young people and institutions and governments together, and this event is a fine example of how things should be organised if we all want to move forward.
 
Hanna Hallin, President of the National Council of Swedish Youth Organisations:
- My wish is that this conference will set an example of how fruitful cooperation between youth organisations and the governments in upcoming EU presidencies could be. It has been an opportunity for policy makers to learn from grassroots experience, and for those taking decisions about young people to actually do so with young people. Now it is up to each Member State to make use of the messages from this conference in their final negotiations.