During the 1-6 April 2008, The Euro-Atlantic Initiative - Generation 2002 had the great opportunity to participate in a major event Young Atlanticist Summit, under the leadership of the Atlantic Council of the United States and the Euro-Atlantic Council of Romania, in association with the Youth Atlantic Treaty Association and the Atlantic Treaty Association., which took place in Bucharest, in conjunction with the official largest NATO Summit in Alliance history.

Almost 120 students and young professionals representing NATO and Partnership for Peace countries, as well as top students from the University of Kabul, convened in Bucharest to grapple with the major security issues facing the Atlantic Community today and to launch an on-line community – the Young Atlanticist Network.

Delegates at the Young Atlanticist Summit talked over the main issues addressing the Alliance role in energy security , the controversy over the Macedonian name, and mechanisms for building closer relations between Alliance and Afghan publics.

The Young Atlanticists discussed current Alliance priorities and challenges with a wide range of leaders, including Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Supreme Allied Commander General John Craddock, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, U.S. President George W. Bush, Dutch PM Jan Peter Balkenende, Albanian PM Sali Berisha, Estonian President Toomas Ilves, U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband, and U.S. First Lady Laura Bush. Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu and President Traian Basescu also met with the group, latter at the official summit's North Atlantic Council table.

An important achievement of the Young Atlanticist Summit was the first ever videoconference link with the University of Kabul, which offered the posibbility to Young Atlanticists to learn about the many challenges affecting the security of that country and to hear Afghan perspectives on the type of assistance most needed by Kabul. At the end of the Young Atlanticist Summit, a joint declaration was issued calling for the creation of a network of Afghan youth that could be linked to the Youth Atlantic Treaty Association network in order to strengthen links between civil societies.

Despite the failure of the official NATO summit to invite FYR Macedonia to join the Alliance because of Greek objections to the name Republic of Macedonia, the Young Atlanticist delegates rallied to find a solution. During a day of intensive talks, Greek and Macedonian delegates stressed the common Euro-Atlantic perspective shared by their countries and announced their plans to initiate a combined working group of the Greek and Macedonian YATA’s to promote joint activities, including further discussion of the name issue.

Another important activity during the YAS was the model NATO simulation. Each delegation was acting as being a NATO official one. They had to define their policy toward energy security in the midst of a crisis. The lively debates brought together the different perspectives of 35 nations, but also identified NATO's role in key areas.

The Young Atlanticist Summit was a continuation of the tradition of the highly successful youth summits organized in Istanbul (2004) and Prague (2002), which each brought together 200 young leaders from NATO and PfP countries.

The Young Atlanticist Summit was hosted by the Romanian Intelligence Service and was made possible through the generous support of its sponsors, including Boeing, which is a founding sponsor of the Young Atlanticist Network, and NATO's Public Diplomacy Division, as well as others.