1. Opening statements by stakeholder groups

The most striking thing about the opening ceremony was that Georgios Kipouros, European Youth Forum representative, was the one who delivered the most clear and straightforward message from all participants in the session. He outlined the key problems in the Internet Governance area and encouraged the EuroDIG participants to focus on these issues during the two days of the conference.

For me, there are at least two reasons for this "phenomenon". First, youth people like Georgios and me are those who have grown up with Internet and we know the web better than anybody. That is why it is logical that we know its problems, could analyse them and confidently look for proper solutions. Second, young people are those who will be the next policy makers. Before that, we have to earn the trust of those currently empowered to make decisions. To show them we are competent enough and they can be sure we will be good policy makers.

Given my impressions from the first session, I would definitely encourage the more active participation of youth people in forums like this one. I am sure that the generation that “runs its social life on Facebook” can contribute to the IG process a lot as far as it is given a chance to do so. Simply because it knows the online environment much better than anybody else. I really appreciate the fact that there has been an attempt that youth are given the floor at EuroDIG. Still, more efforts are needed in this direction. In particular, young people should not only be encouraged to talk, but their voice should be listened to.