15.12.2015   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 417/10

1.

The Council Resolution on a renewed framework for European cooperation in the youth field (2010-2018) (1) which identifies participation as one of the fields of action and its aim to support young people's participation in representative democracy and civil society at all levels and in society at large; and which defines the general initiative of encouraging and supporting the involvement and participation of young people and youth organisations in policy making, implementation and follow-up by the means of a continuous structured dialogue with young people and youth organisations.

2.

The Resolution of 20 May 2014 of the Council and of the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States, meeting within the Council, on a European Union Work Plan for Youth for 2014-2015 (2).

3.

The Joint Recommendations of the fourth work cycle on structured dialogue, defined at the EU Youth Conference organised by the Luxembourg Presidency, 21–24 September 2015 (3).

4.

Democracy, pluralism and active citizenship are fundamental values of the European Union. They include the values of freedom of expression and tolerance (4) and aim for the inclusion of all European citizens. Democracy is not to be taken for granted and needs to be preserved and fostered constantly.

5.

Young people in Europe show overall support and belief in the system of democracy and its representative bodies, but are critical of the way the system is operated in practice and the results produced (5).

6.

They often find it increasingly hard to identify with traditional channels of political participation such as political parties and trade unions but engage in alternative forms allowing for greater individual choices such as campaigns, petitions, demonstrations and instant events that aim at advocating for a specific cause and a tangible change in their life (6).

7.

Information and communication technologies, in particular social media and their mobile use offer new opportunities for involvement in and information about political processes, speed-up the diffusion of information and accelerate the development of alternative participation forms.

8.

The structured dialogue is an instrument within the framework for European cooperation in the youth field to involve young people in the development of EU policies. The outcome of the fourth 18-month work cycle on the overall thematic priority ‘youth empowerment addressing access to rights and the importance of political participation of young people (7)’ is based on the results achieved by the consultations with young people before and during the Italian, Latvian and Luxembourg Presidencies as well as the EU Youth Conferences in Rome in October 2014, Riga in March 2015 and Luxembourg in September 2015 (8).

9.

The results of the dialogue among young people and policy representatives constitute important input for this resolution, including perspectives of young people, youth workers and other experts in the field of youth and facilitate the development of evidence-based and effective EU policies.

10.

The European Union relies on young people committed to the principles of democracy and to European values.

11.

European policy and policy in general should be responsive to the needs and aspirations of young people. Therefore political issues have to be transparent and communicated to all citizens, including young people. Young people need to understand the issues that are at stake in order to create interest and facilitate the political engagement. Opportunities for youth participation in meaningful decision-making processes should be provided by decision-makers from different policy fields and policy levels and need to have an impact.

12.

The concept of political participation includes first of all the representation of young people in the structures of representative democracy, i.e. participating in elections as voters, standing in elections as candidates and participating in political parties. political participation can also take place through membership in (youth) organisations advocating for the interests of young people, political face-to-face or online debates and other forms of opinion-shaping and cultural expression. Political participation can also be experienced in the frame of citizenship and human rights education activities and actions to bring about positive change in society.

13.

By participation in political processes, young people can improve their understanding of opinion-building processes and of different interests at stake. At the personal level, they develop social skills, responsibility, self-confidence, initiative, critical attitude as well as communication and negotiation skills, sense of compromise, empathy and respect towards others' opinions.

14.

Characteristics of effective and real political youth participation processes include:

15.

Youth policy, youth work and youth organisations play an important role in this regard by the promotion of active citizenship, political participation opportunities and the prevention of marginalization and violent radicalization, especially in local areas, where open youth work and outreach youth work address young people.

16.

Physical and mental well-being and the safeguard of the basic needs including aspects of education and training, health, employment, financial security and social integration are necessary for thorough and effective participation of young people.

17.

Establish, implement or further develop national, regional and/or local strategies, programmes, structures or other relevant mechanisms for enhancing the political participation of all young people, especially young people with fewer opportunities. These mechanisms should be knowledge and evidence based, built on cross-sectoral cooperation and include all relevant stakeholders. The design of effective participation strategies should encompass the involvement of the target group during the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation phases. The strategies could include the following priorities.

18.

Foster and promote cross-sectorial cooperation and partnerships between formal education providers, youth organisations and youth work providers in order to develop integrated approaches of citizenship education programmes while involving young people, teachers, youth workers, parents and other relevant actors.

19.

Enhance sustainable participative structures in formal education and non-formal learning settings in order to promote the development of social skills and competences related to democratic values and human rights such as the freedom of expression and the respect of diversity, through the day to day practise of democratic principles.

20.

Promote the establishment and the development of organisations and/or structures at national, regional and local level representing the interest of students vis-à-vis formal education institutions.

21.

Promote the development of programmes on media literacy promoting the capacity to critically analyse information in today's knowledge society as well as programmes on ICT literacy aiming at the development of technological user skills that allow to access, manage, assess and create useful online information.

22.

Enable and facilitate the development of participation processes such as youth councils in close collaboration with local and regional public authorities in order to give young people the opportunity to have their say in local and regional decision-making processes.

23.

Develop and provide information and training opportunities for policy-makers on suitable and youth tailored communication and participation methods and tools in order to facilitate openness and receptiveness towards young people.

24.

Consider the appropriateness of lowering the voting age for the elections of local and regional public authorities to 16 years with respect to national circumstances and national legal frameworks.

25.

Recognise and support young people, youth work and youth organisations in developing diverse forms of political participation including petitions, demonstrations, campaigns as well as the use of culture, arts and sports, given that these instruments allow for a diverse expression of opinions and diverse access to political participation, especially when addressing young people with fewer opportunities.

26.

Develop digital tools for political participation of young people combined with face to face elements and develop adequate trainings for teachers, youth workers, trainers and multipliers that work with different target groups within formal education and non-formal learning settings in order to reach out to young people at all levels; recognise and involve existing channels of youth information and youth information providers at European, national, regional and local level.

27.

Involve the youth field in the implementation of the digital single market strategy for Europe, tackling topics such as digital skills and expertise, safer online use and the fight against illegal contents such as racism, xenophobia and calls for violence.

28.

Support, where appropriate, information and communication processes and tools that enable young people's understanding and appropriation of public policies, highlighting the aspects relevant for young people and making effective use of different media tools and ICT.

29.

Explore and expand opportunities for dialogue at local, regional and national level between young people and policy makers from all policy fields that affect young people.

30.

Encourage the participation of young people in elections and within the formal structures of representative democracies, such as political parties, so that political parties have a greater interest in developing policy proposals that respond to young people's needs.

31.

Support information campaigns and events for young people at the occasion of local, regional, national and European elections by using interactive online and streaming tools as well as specific outreach programmes targeting first time voters and young people with fewer opportunities.

32.

Develop a decision-making culture at all levels of government that supports youth-led bottom-up participation processes and is responsive to informal youth initiatives.

33.

Promote and ensure that EU programmes supporting young people, such as Erasmus+ support:

34.

Support and further develop tailor-made youth work initiatives that focus on citizenship education, human rights education, intercultural and interfaith education, by the use of non-formal learning and peer to peer methods, in order to foster young people's integration into society and to counter extremist tendencies, violent radicalisation and hate speech; exploit good practices resulting from existing cooperation networks in the field of youth policy, such as the European knowledge centre for youth policy (EKCYP) and the SALTO Youth Participation Centre.

35.

Strengthen the capacity of youth information providers in order to enable the dissemination of information regarding political participation opportunities especially for young people that do not belong to organised youth movements or youth organisations.

36.

Make available information on good practices and success stories of projects in the Member States in the context of the Erasmus+ programme on initiatives aiming for the political participation of young people; take account of other research studies and initiatives in this area and disseminate their results.

37.

Establish a summary report of available research studies including i.a. those of the Pool of European Youth Researchers, on e-participation and the range of different digital media and online tools as well as an analysis on how these tools are used by young people, in order to have an overview on existing and effective methodologies.

38.

Define the specific contribution of youth work as well as non-formal and informal learning to fostering active citizenship and participation of young people in diverse and tolerant societies as well as preventing marginalisation, and radicalisation potentially resulting in violent behaviour.

39.

Publish through easy-to-access communication tools, youth tailored information that clarifies and/or explains developments across different EU policies and EU decisions that particularly affect young people, in order to make these transparent and comprehensible.