In recent decades, Article 149, TEC (new Article III-182), has constituted the legal basis for cooperation at the European level, allowing various Community actions which directly or indirectly concern young people. This has been possible in the fields of education, youth exchanges and mobility, employment and training, and more recently, access to information technology. In 1988, the European Union (EU) launched the action programme Youth for Europe in order to support youth exchanges. In 1996, the Commission proposed a programme of Community action concerning a European Voluntary Service for young people. Both these programmes were incorporated into the Youth programme for the period 2000-06. The Youth programme is also intended to encourage debate between EU Member States on drafting a proper youth policy. The White Paper on Youth was the result of a wide-ranging consultation at national and European levels. With enlargement, Europe has 75 million young people in the 15-25 age group, and its population will undergo economic and social changes that will bring about qualitative and quantitative changes in relations between generations. The White Paper is thus a response to young people's strong disaffection with the traditional forms of participation in public life, and it calls on young Europeans to become active citizens. Active citizenship is possible only in an institutional framework that is attentive to the needs of young people, capable of responding to their needs and able to provide them with the means to express their ideas and to make a greater contribution to society. In order to help the Member States and the regions of Europe to take action for young people in Europe, the White Paper proposes a new framework for cooperation, consisting of two components: increasing cooperation between Member States and taking greater account of the youth factor in sectoral policies. The White Paper is also the result of a legislative process in which the European institutions and the Council in particular, have been active in drawing up creativity, which are an innovative factor in European youth policy. Finally, following the introduction of the declaration on the importance of sport in the Amsterdam Treaty (1997), the EU developed an active role in sport. In this new role, it supported projects such as those on the integration of young people via sports, the fight against doping in sport and a school information campaign on the ethical values channelled by sport. See: Professional training; Protection of young people at work; Vocational training; Youth employment