Only 14 incidents for 1,084 scout camps in the province of Luxembourg last year
The controversy linked to the ban, by the mayors of four Walloon municipalities (Florenville, Chiny, Bouillon and Andenne), of alcohol in youth camps was the subject of a meeting on Friday between ministers, governors and federations youth movements from the north and south of the country, indicated the French-speaking minister Valérie Glatigny.
This meeting first made it possible to carry out an objective inventory the situation in the province of Luxembourg during the summer period: In 2020, the police services recorded 25 alcohol-related incidents in 1,135 camps located in the province of Luxembourg. In 2021, these same services recorded 14 incidents for 1,084 camps. That is a rate varying from 1.3% to 2.2%.
The Scouts, the Catholic Guides of Belgium, the National Federation of Patros, the Pluralist Scouts and Guides and the Red Falcons have takes stock of all the initiatives taken in recent years or that the federations wish to put in place to tackle alcohol consumption during summer camps“the overwhelming majority of which is fortunately going very well”, underlined Mrs. Glatigny (MR).
Training of facilitators, awareness of the effects of alcohol, setting up of a “Youth, alcohol and society” working group, educational tools and sanction procedures have all been scrutinized. The establishment of a camp charter was discussed at the Interministerial Youth Conference. As a reminder, this new body brings together all the ministers from the different entities of our country whose skills are related to youth.
A working group has been set up and will work in collaboration with the federations of youth movements in order to set up complementary measures to the existing tools where necessary. It was also agreed that an annual preparatory meeting would be organized in the future ahead of the camps.
Also present at this meeting were the Flemish Minister for Youth Benjamin Dalle (CD&V), the office of the Walloon Minister for Local Authorities Christophe Collignon (PS), the governor of the province of Luxembourg Olivier Schmitz and the mayors of Chiny, Florenville and Bouillon .