On Thursday I attended the first meeting of the Beneluberales, a group of several of the liberal youth organizations in the Benelux (Benelux, Netherlands, Luxembourg) which took place from the 14th to the 16th of May in Brussels. The idea of such a get-together had been floating in the air for many years but finally the Flemish LVSV and Jong-VLD took up the challenge. With political and financial support of the liberals in the European Parliament, a diverse, tasty and fun two days were planned.

Illustratively, the actual theme of the event, the Benelux, didn't feature very prominently in the programme. While it is one of the oldest regional institutions in the world (with its own Court of Justice, Parliament, Secretariat, etc.), setting an example for what is now the European Union, it has become completely overshadowed by the success of its cousin in terms of visibility and political and economic relevance. As one of the speakers noted, there are nowadays very few people who would call themselves 'citizens' of the Benelux, and even among all the politically engaged liberals convened at this meeting (like yours truly), knowledge about the Benelux was close to being fully absent.

After several speeches and Q&A's with most notably ELDR leader Annemie Neyts and ALDE leader Graham Watson, as well as a few workshops, a heated discussion took place between MEP Toine Manders and a large chunk of the participants on the issue of consumer protection. After all these fireworks, it was up to me and Philippe de Backer (J-VLD President) to make some concluding remarks that would serve as a sound basis for the ensuing dinner.

I brought up the issue of the '68 generation in the Benelux, France and other parts of the Western world, questioning how successful they had been in overthrowing traditional hierarchies and morals and construing their own. This in response to an article by Daniel Cohn-Bendit in various newspapers, in which he calls upon the new generations to define their own battles. However, if we move beyond the narrow Western European perspective to a more global one, and we look at modern rallying points for young people, we can only but observe that not much seems to have changed. A xenophobic nationalism, to be observed in well-organized groups of youth in China, Russia, but of course similarly so in more dispersed groups in Western Europe, seems to be as rampant as ever. While some may consider it an atavism for the 21st century, such (aggressive) nationalism remains one of the main challenges young liberals face vis-a-vis their peers.

Bart Woord

ps. comments are much appreciated!