EFAY Blog

Readers may recall that on the 05.09.06. I sent a letter, in my capacity as Youth Affairs person for Mebyon Kernow – the Party for Cornwall to Mr. Pierre Colot, Ambassador at the Embassy of Belgium in Kiev, Ukraine. In the letter I expressed our concern about their treatment of the prospective delegates of Youth Association for Human Rights (Ukraine) who applied to them for a visa to visit Brussels in May and to inform them about the Cycle for Solidarity project, which involved them indirectly. To date the Youth Office of Mebyon Kernow or the offices of the EFAy have not received a reply or acknowledgement of our letter.
As you can imagine, we are a little disappointed.

The following report was sent to HQ from Phil on the 23 September. It had been lost in the internet somehow and so the true date was some time before.  

Location: Cherkassy, Central UkraineMiles cycled: 4556 miles

-to be continued next month-

After sending the press release about Phil to the West Briton newspaper (the main weekly newspaper in Cornwall), I waited to see if they would contact me about putting it in the newspaper.

I waited, but nothing happened.

I asked someone from my Party to have a go and he sent it to several papers. They got back to him with questions about Phil’s connections with Cornwall, but that was the last I heard. I don’t think it went in.

But, not wanting to give up and always looking for an opportunity to get the EFAy in to the press, I thought it would be a good idea to send a press release to media outlets in Phil Tanner’s home area in Surrey. So I sent the following press release to a host of different newspapers, a local Surrey radio station and even the TV channel.

Some of them included:

Surrey Advertiser

Surrey Herald

Surrey Comet

Surrey Times

And BBC Radio Surrey.

I sent them off all individually (so that they wouldn’t know it was a « mass » mail out) and asked if they could respond if they intended to use it. However, I don’t know what I was expecting actually I got no response!

This was a shame and not what I was expecting. So the press release is below and who knows, maybe someone from the press in Cornwall or Surrey will visit these pages and run story.

Surrey Man in Kiev

A young Surrey man has cycled miles almost 5000 miles to Kiev to show his solidarity with young people from the Ukraine who don’t have the same freedom of European travel as himself.

Phil Tanner, 28, set out from his parents home in Addlestone on the 22^nd May 2006 and cycled 4604 miles to Kiev as part of a project he called the Cycle for Solidarity Tour. On his route, Phil visited representatives from groups in the Basque Country, South Tyol, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia and Romania who supported the aims of the project.

The tour was inspired by the refusal of the Belgian Embassy to grant a visa to a group of young people from a human rights organisation in the Ukraine, to attend a conference in Brussels. The restrictions imposed on the Ukrainians to travel freely to the conference, which was held at the European Parliament, highlighted an acute injustice for Phil.

In a statement to the European Free Alliance Youth (EFAy), who helped organise the Solidarity Tour, Phil wrote:

“The delegates who applied to for a visa to Brussels had no ulterior motive other than represent their human rights organisation and develop closer European contacts. This opportunity was denied them by the Belgian authorities, who even refused them to appeal the decision. Young people involved in civil society activities should be applauded and given the support they need, especially if this means building a safer and more democratic Europe. They should be allowed to travel freely and without restriction.”

Phil arrived in Kiev on 31^st August to be met by the Ukrainian delegates who were originally refused the travel visa to Belgium. Phil told the delegates that he had wanted to cycle because it not only represents an environmentally friendly way to travel, but showed others that if he can cycle from west to the east, Europe cannot be so big and different as some people imagine. He pointed out that there are differences, but it is how these are perceived that creates the real difference.

A Blog of the trip can be found on the site www.efay.eu

Phil Tanner was interviewed for a Ukrainian television channel on 6^th September about the

project and his involvement in it. A photo from the interview will be attached very soon.

The following letter was sent to the Belgium Ambassador, Mr. Pierre Colot, at the Belgium Embassy in Kiev. This was the Embassy that refused to grant the visa application to the delegates from the Independent Youth Association for Human Rights (Ukraine), Friends of the EFAy.

Mr. Pierre Colot

Ambassador

Embassy of Belgium in Kiev

Leontovitcha 4
010030 Kiev

Kiev@diplobel.org

ambkiev@gu.org

Dear Mr. Pierre Colot

Visa application for Independent Youth Association for Human Rights (Ukraine)

(I am writing to make you aware of a project that is currently being undertaken called the Cycle for Solidarity Tour. The project indirectly involves the Belgian Embassy in Kiev, so I would hope you read on. The project was initially inspired by the refusal of the Belgian Embassy to grant a visa to a small group of young people from the Ukraine, who wanted to travel to Brussels earlier this year to attend a conference.

The delegates were from the Independent Youth Association for Human Rights (Ukraine) or IYAHR for short and were invited to attend the annual conference of the European Free Alliance Youth (EFAy) on the 10^th May 2006 and the 25^th anniversary celebrations of the European Free Alliance (EFA) that were taking place at the same venue over consecutive days.

The IYAHR are ‘Friends’ of the EFAy and are interested in developing closer relations with groups throughout Europe. Unfortunately, the delegates were refused their visa request and were unable to attend the event. The reason that was given for the refusal by the Belgian authorities was that there were forged documents among the papers that were included in their visa application. However, the IYAHR adamantly denies this, but staff at the Belgian Embassy would not allow them an opportunity to express their concerns or appeal against the decision.

Consequently Eugene A.Kovalenko, Head of the General Council of the Association, wrote a letter, which was read out to delegates at the conference on the 10^th May. (A copy of the letter can be found at www.efay.eu). Attendees at the conference felt disappointed that the IYAHR delegates had not been able to attend the meeting.

One of the members of my own organisation, Mebyon Kernow – Bagas Yowynk/Youth Group, was so moved by what he considered to be the unjust treatment suffered by the Ukrainian delegates, he resolved to do something about it. Together with other members of our group we developed a project, in association with the EFAy and others partners, that we called The Cycle for Solidarity Tour.

As part of the project our member, Phil Tanner, decided that he would cycle from the UK to the Ukraine in order to raise awareness of the difficulties that young Europeans from outside of the European Union have in being allowed to travel freely across their own continent. On his journey a number of stops were planned to meet up with members of other organisations across Europe. The purpose of this was to show solidarity for those young Europeans active in civil society, but who are unable to travel freely to develop international contacts.

Phil Tanner left the UK on 22^th May 2006 on the first leg of the Cycle for Solidarity Tour and arrived in Kiev on the 31^st August 2006. On the tour Phil has visited six European minority groups in different states, who are also partners in the project. They arranged press conferences and interviews with the media in their regions to raise awareness of the aims of the project. (Fuller details of his trip can be found on the Blog section of the EFAy website www.efay.eu). In Kiev Phil has been received by the very delegates from IYAHR who were refused visas to travel to Brussels in May.

In addition to informing you about our project and your own role in its instigation, I also wanted to raise our concerns with you about the participation of members of the IYAHR in future EFAy events.

We are concerned that because the IYAHR were unsuccessful in obtaining a visa for their planned trip in to Brussels in May 2006, that they will be automatically rejected in any future visa application to you. Are you able to allay our fears that this will not be the case?

If you have any questions about the project, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with me at the above address. I have also send this letter to you in hard copy format.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

Rhisiart Tal-e-bot

Youth Leader

Mebyon Kernow – Bagas Yowynk/Youth Group

The following press release was sent out to the West Briton newspaper on Monday 4^th

September. This is the biggest weekly paper in Cornwall. It was also sent to Cornish World

magazine. To date we do not know if any of these publications have or will take the story up.

MK youth member cycles to the Ukraine in show of solidarity

A member of Mebyon Kernow’s youth group, MK-BY, has cycled 4604 miles to the Ukraine in a show of solidarity for young people across Europe.