The future belongs to the young ones.

How are you? The Euro is bad, the Greeks are in trouble, polar bears are ordering fridges like there is no tomorrow, the rain forest is dying, the planet is weeping, the economy is in a terminal phase. Species are being wiped out at record breaking rates, unemployment is the new black, and Europe ranks on the global economy scale somewhere between Zimbabwe and Timbuktu.

This is 2012, and, you know it: the world will end in December. Maybe Europe will not even live that long. Let’s face it, there is no future, and if there was any… it would not exactly be pink and bright.

As you can see, after browsing through the news headlines, I was in the sunniest of moods when I showed up at the launch event of the European Association of Communications Agencies’ newest initiative. Rather than joining the rest of the world in doom and gloom, the trade association, represented by smart people with great corporate hair,  decided to bet on the future’s only hope: the young generation, and help and stimulate them to take their future in their own hands, in the best of entrepreneurial ways.

Moray MacLennan, president of the EACA stated:  “We want to introduce a positive voice into the European debate. We want to help young people not to be a victim of the world’s pessimism, but encourage them to control their own future.”

The campaign, www.thisismyfuture.eu  will be kicked off in five countries to start with (Spain, Germany, Italy, Poland and the UK). A small team of EACA people, business angels and skilled coaches will help young entrepreneurs take off, launch their start-up, and create jobs. Small and medium enterprises being the lion heart of the European economy, this should give new energy to a slumbering continent.

The intention of the campaign is brought to live by a video spot where a young girl refuses to collect dust in a museum display, and decides to take control over her own faith. “This is MY future”, she hisses: It reminds me of something Bertrand Piccard told me when I last saw him at LeWeb: “If the Young Generation is worthy and willing they will save the planet. Or not. It’s their future”.