Youth action in Vilnius

Right now I'm sitting in the lobby of a Lithuanian hotel in the capital, Vilnius, watching a lady trying to restrain a large dog from barking. Yesterday I saw the same people giving the same dog beer. It appears there's some kind of premier dog competition going on here at the moment, the building has been full of them for a good few days.

However, this is not the main event. Over the past week I have been attending the wordily-named European Union Regions Youth Leaders' Summit 2005, which is being staged for the first time this year. Around 40 young people from nearly 30 countries took part and, as the name suggests, a heavy emphasis was placed on how to ensure national youth policies can be implemented equally in countries which have large amounts of differences between regions. These could include governance, geography, funding, structures and many more. It's been very interesting to meet so many new people from a great variety of countries - I was really looking forward to this event and that has been justified.

We also learnt a lot about the participation system in Lithuania, which appears to be well-funded and very effective. A fine example of this was on Wednesday, when we staged a protest outside the Belarus embassy in Vilnius against restrictions the country's government is placing on freedom of movement. One particular case was highlighted recently: Tatsiana Khoma, an economics student, was expelled from her university and evicted from her residence because she was elected to the Executive Commitee of ESIB, the umbrella organisation for national student unions in Europe. Her university gave the excuse that it was because she missed three days of school.

This is a totally unacceptable situation. Action is being taken across Europe to isolate the university in question and try getting it to allow Tatsiana back in. The Norwegian students' union has started an online petition, which currently has over 7000 signatures. Please add yours: click here to visit the site.

But moving back to the youth structures of Lithuania, the way this example links to the high efficiency is that there were several camera crews and other journalists waiting for us as we reached the embassy. Our demonstration was featured on the national TV news that same evening. It was a real achievement and hopefully we've helped make a difference by raising awareness of this problem.

As for Vilnius, it's quite a nice town - although incredibly cold this time of year. We had snow on two days and ice drifted along the river. Wandering around, I found it similar to Tallinn in that there is a clearly visible contrast between old and new. Architecture dating back centuries is in close proximity to towering plasma TV screens and garish riverside lighting features. However, one big difference I noticed was in the general standard of maintenance. Rundown apartment buildings with glassless windows, peeling paintwork and walls of cracking cement lie within yards of imposing government ministry offices, one of which had a very new-looking large pointless sculpture directly in front and rows of shiny cars parked neatly around it.

By contrast, popular tourist spots – such as one tall bell tower resembling a lighthouse – glow monotonously as dusk settles and a tackily illuminated Christmas tree in the town square threatens to induce epileptic fits from oblivious onlookers. But surely something needs to be done to preserve the everyday heritage of this historical town? Venture even a small distance away from the main streets and you’re greeted by a chorus of decay and despair from sites which should be well looked-after.

Tomorrow I fly to Prague for two nights, with the plane departing at 6.45am - just over seven hours from now. I've never been there before so am looking forward to discovering this new place, although in my opinion you usually need a bit longer than two days to really know somewhere. After this, I will begin my month on the European interrail network and go to Switzerland for the UN youth delegates' evaluation meeting in Geneva next weekend. It's a very important one; we will discuss plans for our follow-up work and arrangements for the youth delegates of 2006, among other things. And of course it will be nice to see people again.