After several years of negotiation with the European Commission and between youth organisations about the involvement of youth in the European integration process, the Youth Forum was officially constituted during its first statutory meeting held in Brussels on 22-23/11/1978. The vocation of the Youth Forum of European Communities (YFEC) was to act as the political platform of national youth councils and international youth organisations towards the institutions of the European Union. It is a political co-ordination platform of national and international youth organisations in the European Communities. It operates at European Community level monitoring developments affecting young people and tries to influence policy-makers in the European Community institutions and it works to promote and defend the rights and interest of young people, particularly in Community policy. Another important field of activities is to provide information and act as a forum for expression of opinion. The YFEC is a recognised political interlocutor of all institutions of the European Community. It has the status of a non profit-making International Association under Belgian law, is subsidised by the Commission, but it is independent. The four statutory Governing bodies of the Youth Forum of the European Communities are the General Assembly, the Executive Committee, the Bureau and the Secretariat. Members have full or consultative membership or observer status, members have to fulfil certain criteria like democratic structures and are independent from external authority. During the founding session of the General Assembly in 1978 nine National Youth Committees (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands), twenty-two International Youth Organisations representing political and cultural tendencies, the Council of European National Youth Committees (CENYC), the European Co-ordination Bureau of International Youth Organisations (ECB) as consultative members and twelve observers took part. In 1986 the YFEC had thirty-seven full members and seventeen observers. On 02/04/1995 the Forum changed its name to Youth Forum of European Union. In April 1996 the Executive Committees of CENYC, ECB and YFEC agreed to merge in a single entity called the 'European Youth Forum' which held its first Extraordinary General Assembly in July 1996.