European Youth Ministers responded to the youth marches by stressing the importance of strategic cross-sectoral cooperation in response to tackling climate change. At their meeting in Brussels on Friday 22 November, they also highlighted the importance of supporting youth work in support of this activism.
While all Member States have taken the floor, few have made more concrete proposals than this. Belgium called for the inclusion of ecological quality criteria in the European Solidarity Corps and the Erasmus programme. “We don’t have a planet B”, said the Flemish Minister for Brussels Affairs, Benjamin Dalle, for Belgium. Italy, for its part, spoke of the inclusion of a 25% threshold for support for climate objectives in the Solidarity Corps. Regarding this programme, currently under negotiation for the period 2021-2027, Germany has returned with its request to also make it accessible to young people under 18 years old.
Voicing their views was followed by the Vice-President of the Finnish Youth Council, Sara Nyman, who alerted them to the climate emergency. She suggested that climate change be integrated into school curriculum, that the sharing economy be encouraged and that more resources be made available to the voluntary sector. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)