Safeguarding and creating civic spaces that facilitate meaningful youth participation

SUMMARY OF:

Conclusions on safeguarding and creating civic spaces for young people that facilitate meaningful youth participation

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THESE CONCLUSIONS?

They aim to ensure that young people have access to civic spaces that facilitate democratic engagement and active participation in public life, which, in turn, contribute to personal, professional and social development, European Union (EU) values, social cohesion and intergenerational collaboration.

KEY POINTS

Youth policy

EU Member States are primarily responsible for youth policy. Cooperation between Member States is currently based on the 2019–2027 EU youth strategy.

Civic spaces

Civic spaces are defined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development as the set of legal, policy, institutional and practical conditions (both online and offline) necessary for private citizens to access information, express themselves, associate, organise and participate in public life.

Recommendations

The conclusions of the Council of the European Union set a number of recommendations for the Member States and the European Commission separately and collectively.

The recommendations for the Member States include:

safeguarding and expanding civic spaces for all young people, putting in place additional measures to ensure that young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and with fewer opportunities can access and participate in such spaces;
addressing logistical and practical issues that cause a shortage of free and accessible public spaces;
promoting civic and political processes and active cooperation between youth organisations and education and training institutions on common projects that can help contribute to achieving the sustainable development goals and the European youth goals.

The recommendations for the Member States and the Commission collectively include:

helping safeguard and expand a variety of civic spaces for young people at all levels through sustainable structural funding, with the possibility for project-based funding for youth organisations and non-formal groups of young people;
increasing the institutional outreach to young people, directly or through youth organisations, by using effective offline and online engagement tools;
supporting research and monitoring civic spaces for young people across the EU, and at the national, regional and local levels, and evaluating the participation of young people in civic spaces;
giving specific attention to youth civic spaces and basic freedoms of young people within the European Year of Youth 2022.

The recommendations for the Commission alone include:

supporting non-commercialised, open, inclusive and safe civic spaces for young people, through different EU programmes, including key youth programmes such as Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps, and across sectors;
increasing the involvement of young people and youth organisations active in the planning, implementation and following up of European initiatives that impact them such as the European climate pact and the Conference on the Future of Europe.

BACKGROUND

For further information, see:

Youth (European Commission).

MAIN DOCUMENT

Conclusions of the Council and of the representatives of the Governments of the Member States meeting within the Council on safeguarding and creating civic spaces for young people that facilitate meaningful youth participation (OJ C 501 I, 13.12.2021, pp. 19–23).