The aims of this seminar were to present and make more visible the work already being done to ensure and improve the quality of services and activities relating to information for young people, and to define the different "quality factors" involved in this work in order to provide a clear concept for those working in this area and for the bodies that fund them.

The seminar on "Quality Matters in Information for Young People", as a joint activity of the three European organisations, was the first time that they had organised a seminar together, with a view to presenting different methods and experience, and to intensifying co-operation between the three organisations, at national and European levels. Prepared by a preparatory group that met three times (on 15 March, 23 May, and 6 September 2005), the seminar took place at FIAP Jean Monnet in Paris on 15-18 September 2005..

2. Compendium of Quality Initiatives (online version / Full document)
As an important element of the preparatory work for the seminar, in April the organisers invited the national partners of ERYICA, Eurodesk and EYCA to provide descriptions of current work which they were undertaking relating to quality in information for young people. There was a very good response to this request for experience to present and share, with a total of 50 quality initiatives or projects received (42 from national, regional or local level in 17 countries, and 8 being quality initiatives or activities conducted by one or other of the European organisations with the participation of all or some of its national partners).

The descriptions of these initiatives and projects were assembled into a 130-page Compendium of Quality Initiatives (see Appendix A for the contents of the Compendium), which was sent to all the participants before the seminar. It will also be made available to the national partners of the 3 organisations and other interested bodies after the seminar.

3. Summary of Proceedings
The Seminar Programme is presented in Appendix B.

At the Opening Session on Thursday afternoon, the participants were welcomed by Bernard Charbonnel (President of Eurodesk, on behalf of Eurodesk France which was hosting the event), who chaired the session and outlined the aims of the seminar. The representatives of the French Ministry for Youth and Sport (Ms. Virginia Mangematin), of the Council of Europe (Mr. Guy-Michel Brandtner), and of the European Commission (Mr. Victor Guerreiro), made statements about the importance that they attached to the issue of quality in information for young people. EYCA, Eurodesk and ERYICA then made presentations to the plenary session about their respective approaches to quality assessment and improvement.

During the remainder of the Thursday afternoon session, and at the Friday morning sessions, a selection of 24 quality initiatives or projects (see the Seminar Programme) were presented, 3 at a time in separate rooms, each being allocated a maximum of 30 minutes.

At the start of the Friday afternoon session, Ljubo Raicevic (President of ERYICA) chaired a plenary session at which some general issues arising from the presentations were discussed, and arrangements were made for the Discussion Groups.

Following the presentations, each participant enrolled in two Discussion Groups (organised in two series of three groups, see the Seminar Programme) according to their interests, which had sessions on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning (see section 5 below).

At the Closing Session, in plenary on Saturday afternoon, which was chaired by Wolfgang Schick (President of EYCA), each of the Discussion Groups presented a summary of the main points from its discussions (see pages 5-11). The participants were invited to make an evaluation of the seminar, indicating what they had liked and what could be improved; the results of the evaluation would be distributed after the seminar. The session endorsed the intention of the three organisations to make the Compendium, the PowerPoint presentations and other materials from the seminar as widely available as possible; it was suggested that a shared web-site might be created by the three European organisations for that purpose and for future joint activities. The participants expressed their appreciation to the three European organisations for organising the seminar, and to Eurodesk-France for hosting it.

4. Participants
The seminar participants were drawn mainly from the national partners of the 3 European organisations, roughly 20 persons per European organisation as there was a maximum of 60 rooms available at the seminar venue. A total of 57 participants from 21 countries took part in the seminar, including a representative of the government of Slovenia and a representative of the European Youth Forum.

The French Ministry for Youth and Sport, the Council of Europe (Directorate of Youth and Sport) and the European Commission (DG-EAC - Youth Unit) were also represented at the seminar.

5. Discussion Groups
Following the presentations which were completed on Friday morning, the main work of the seminar took place in Discussion Groups on the following 6 topics:
1. Quality Factors in Delivering Information to Young People, (See results)
2. Research about Information Needs of Young People, (See results)
3. Minimum Standards in Youth Information, (See results)
4. Attitudes and Skills Needed by Youth Information Workers, (See results)
5. Participation of Young People in Youth Information Work, (See results)
6. Measures to Assess & Improve Quality in Web-based Info Services, (See results).

Each of the Discussion Groups had two sessions, with three of them meeting at the same time. They all reported to the Closing Session of the seminar, on the basis of main points that they had recorded during their discussions. These main points are presented on the following pages, reproduced from the flip-chart sheets which were presented at the Closing Session.