The European Ministers for Education and Youth, meeting at the Council in Brussels on Monday 13 May, discussed the follow-up to the EU Conference on Youth, held in Ghent from 2 to 5 March 2024, as part of the 10th cycle of the EU Youth Dialogue.
This conference, organised by the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU, was dedicated to creating inclusive societies, an objective of the EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027. It produced six recommendations targeting young people at risk of poverty and those with fewer opportunities, accompanied by 34 proposed implementation measures.
Youth impact clause. During the debate, discussions focused on improving the monitoring and feedback of the Dialogue’s results. The Finnish minister, Sari Multala, stressed the importance of extending the dialogue cycles from 18 months to “two or three presidencies” to enable better implementation and more effective support. She also proposed stepping up the use of existing tools and introducing the ‘youth impact clause’, a demand from the European Year of Youth 2022 to encourage more productive exchanges with young people.
The Slovenian Minister for Education, Darjo Felda, also called for the rapid creation of a group of experts for the ‘youth impact clause’, to integrate youth policies into other policy areas. He also stressed the importance of working with the European Commission and promoting the Dialogue via the European Youth Portal website.
Diversity. The French minister, Sarah El Haïry, made a similar plea, supporting greater integration of “young people” in all their diversity within the Dialogue.
The ministers were also invited to reflect on best practice in implementing the recommendations to promote inclusive societies for young people in their respective countries.
The Luxembourg minister, Claude Meisch, spoke of the importance of increasing the visibility of dialogue and information accessible to all young people, also mentioning the priority of access to affordable housing as a major challenge at both national and European level. Austria stressed the need to give young people the means to express themselves in order to fight abstention, with an emphasis on political and financial education. It also addressed the issue of mental health, supporting access to psychological support for children and teenagers. These points have been developed by several Member States, such as Spain.
Democratic participation. At the end of the morning, the Flemish Minister for Youth, Benjamin Dalle, who chaired the discussions, highlighted the need to integrate young people into the democratic process. He mentioned discussions on lowering the voting age to 16 for elections, which remains a national competence.
According to the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Iliana Ivanova, 3 million young Europeans will be voting for the first time in the forthcoming elections from 6 to 9 June. She also presented the recent results of a Eurobarometer survey, published on Tuesday, which show that 64% of young people plan to vote. The Commissioner, who welcomed this as a sign of young people’s growing interest in public affairs, nevertheless reiterated the importance of civic education and the Erasmus+ programme in this context. Indeed, 19% of young people say they are not interested in politics and 13% say they are not interested in voting.
Year of Youth, inclusive societies and work. The ministers also adopted three conclusions. The first concerns the impact and legacy of the European Year of Youth 2022. Another is the importance of inclusive societies. The third is the need to integrate youth work and strengthen the links between children’s rights and youth policies. A resolution was also adopted recognising the major importance of young people’s work for democracy in Europe. In addition, the idea of appointing a Vice-President of the European Commission dedicated to youth was discussed.
Geopolitical crises. The meeting was also an opportunity for the European ministers to meet their Ukrainian counterpart, Matvi Bidny, who shared his views on the situation of young people during the conflict and underlined the solidarity shown by the EU in this respect. Mr Dalle expressed his concern at the current geopolitical crises, in particular, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the continuing conflicts in the Middle East. He called for respect for the International Convention on the Rights of the Child and for greater solidarity with young people affected by these crises. (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)