Eurodesk history

This unprecedented demand, especially from outside Scotland, led to a cooperation strategy, whereby selected partner organisations in the other 3 provinces of the United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland and Wales) agreed to deliver identical services to young people and youth workers in their areas. This approach had implications for the quality of information and services delivered to the public, effective information management, efficient communication and development of appropriate training. From 1991 to 1994 the delivery of Eurodesk services was run in the UK as a network activity across the 4 provinces, with the network coordination based in Edinburgh.   In 1994, at the request of the European Commission, the UK model was presented in Brussels to representatives of youth ministries from 7 Member States. The result of this meeting was a pilot project to examine the feasibility of whether the Eurodesk model was flexible enough to be developed in other countries, where different situations, structures and information environments existed.   By June 1995, 7 national Eurodesk units had been successfully established in Denmark, France, Ireland, Luxembourg the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. Eurodesk in Edinburgh was asked to coordinate the extension of this model of European information management to the rest of the European Union Member States, and, eventually, to all the countries participating as full partners in the EU’s YOUTH programme.   After this successful pilot phase, the Commission requested the setting up of a European network of Eurodesk services throughout the EU Member States in order to consolidate this service to the youth field in 1995.   In 1996, a full-time research and coordination unit - Eurodesk Brussels Link - was established in Brussels to support the national partners in providing their services to the public.   In 1998, an International Association (Eurodesk AISBL) was created under Belgian Law by the Eurodesk national partners to give a legal status to the Brussels office, thereby allowing it to receive financial support directly from the European Commission, rather than indirectly through one of the national partners.