MOSCOW, January 15. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s Sherpa in the Group of Eight (G8) Alexei Kvasov met with the candidates who had past preliminary qualification tests and were heading for the final round of selection for the Y8 Russia 2014, and urged them to state their agenda “based on your experience and understanding of life.”
Since 2006, the Y8 has become an official event of the Russian presidency in the Group as the youth format of the G8. Every year, experts select five most talented young people from among students and university graduates to present Russia’s position in the Y8, which this time will to be held in May 2014, where young people from the G8 countries and the European Union will try to lobby their ideas. The selected ones will then be submitted to the G8 Sherpas.
Speaking to the finalists on Wednesday, January 15, Kvasov said they were facing “the enormous and real task” of stating the agenda. “Based on your experience and understanding of life, you have to state something in a very concise way,” he said.
“We would like this to match our presidency’s priorities,” he said. “Our task is to confirm to ourselves and the world one more time that young people are a part of the world, we have common problems and that the existing disagreements are just minor nuances,” the Sherpa said.
He stressed the importance of the Y8 because young people “are free of stereotypes.