Presentation

The Franco-German Youth Office (OFAJ) was set up by the Treaty of Elysée in 1963 and its mission is to encourage exchanges between the young people of the two countries, to strengthen their understanding and thereby to develop representations on the neighboring country and to contribute to education for European citizenship.

To this end, the OFAJ provides support for school and university exchanges, language courses, twinning of cities and regions, sports and cultural meetings, professional training courses and exchanges, travel grants, training courses for trainers, research work, Etc.

The OFAJ, a body governed by international public law, is governed by a Board of Directors, chaired by the ministers responsible for youth in both countries, and led by a Franco-German tandem of General Secretaries. The 70 agents of the OFAJ work in binational teams spread over three sites: Paris, present headquarters, Berlin, then an office in Saarbrücken. Conditions and working relationships are governed by the staff regulations that are specific to the OFAJ.

The resources of the OFAJ come from a common fund, which is funded equally by the French State and the German State. In 2014, government contributions amounted to € 24.35 million. Each year, the OFAJ supports an average of 9,000 exchanges involving about 200,000 young people. While the work of the OFAJ and its agents is constantly recognized and praised by the institutions of the two countries, the threat of a new statute stipulating the abolition of indefinite contracts, the considerable reduction of the means of action of the Staff Committee and a new income structure has been on the staff of the OFAJ since 2008. Faced with this concern, the OFAJ staff founded a Trade Union Section in 2012 and elected its Bureau in 2013, and affiliated to  USF. Currently, about one-third of the 70 SOFAJ agents have joined the Trade Union Section.

The aim of the union branch of the SOFAJ is to defend the interests of agents of the OFAJ, to commit themselves to the improvement of their working conditions in a broad sense and to participate in the realization of the objectives of the OFAJ . The affiliation with the USF allowed us to enrich his know-how and expanded our means of action.

Contact us

SOFAJ/GDFJW
OFAJ
Molkenmarkt
10179 Berlin

President : Anne Jardin
E-mail : gdfjw@freenet.de