The year 2022 has been dedicated to Youth. The launch of the ‘European Year of Youth’ (EYY) by the European Commission President, frames youth as a major policy priority for the coming year. In her ‘State of the Union’ address to the European Parliament last September, President Ursula Von Der Leyen said: “We propose to make 2022 the year of European Youth. A year dedicated to empowering those who have dedicated so much to others. “
With consolidated EU institutional support and buffered by a wide spectrum of machinery and resources, youth have been firmly placed under the spotlight in a year of compelling policies and problems – the continuing pandemic, the climate crisis, green and digital revolutions, external relations problems in the near and far East, democratic fragmentation in some EU States…So, how do Youth perceive, and act on this initiative?
In the past many of these eponymous ‘years’ dedicated to – women, artists, journalists, etc. have faltered in the race from commitment to delivery. Often, the accompanying fanfare and choreography have proved no more than high-profile set pieces that conceal the lack of genuine ambitions, partnership structures, achievable strategies and public acceptance. However, there is a perceptive change in the mood music in Europe today following the deaths and deprivations caused by two years of the pandemic.
While the roll call of deaths and serious illnesses in the (ongoing) pandemic are the stuff of horror headlines, it is widely recognised that young people have suffered most in social and economic terms from the Covid-19 crisis: closed schools, universities and training centres; unemployment and social restrictions; lack of material support and exclusion from social-security systems; restrictions on travel and mobility. All this has worsened, directly and drastically, the living situation of many young Europeans.
Yet youth opportunities were already limited in many European countries even before the pandemic. The consequences of the 2008 financial crash still affect the lives of many today, especially through persistent youth unemployment and emigration.
And so, against these backgrounds, the European Year of Youth will organise youth-focused and centric activities and initiatives across all member states in 2022. Young people will be engaged in key consultation processes, such as the below ‘Conference on the Future of Europe,’ and in other public policies at EU, national and local levels. increased efforts will be made to include youth priorities in relevant EU policy areas and at every level of the EU’s decision-making process.
The year will contain conferences, initiatives promoting youth participation in policy making, awareness-raising campaigns on a more inclusive, green and digital EU, as well as studies and research on the situation in which young people in the EU find themselves.
The Commission is wary against creating new divides, and thus there will be a special focus on young people with fewer opportunities and on dealing with mental health issues.”Europe needs all of its youth. We must step up our support to those who fall into the gaps – those not in any kind of employment, education or training. For them, we will put in place a new programme, ALMA. (Aim, Learn, Master, Achieve)
ALMA will help these young Europeans to find temporary work experience in another Member State. Because they too deserve an experience like Erasmus. To gain skills, to create bonds and help forge their own European identity.” (President Von Der Leyen)
There are many echoes for our ‘Family’ in those words as they resonate with so much work already done by the fund’s many projects with NEETS. This work deserves, profile, partnering, being put in the window of best practises. As does so much other work being done across the board, aided by the imaginative and generous financing.
With careful communication and strategic direction this work and the diverse projects can act as entry points for the ‘Family’ into wider consortiums of solidarity for youth, vaulting on the opportunities offered by the EYY’s activities.
The EYY coincides with the final months of the yearlong ‘Conference on the Future of Europe’, to which valuable inputs can still be made to the debates. Young people in particular have a huge stake in these discussions that will impact their current and future realities, and the futures of generations of young Europeans to come. It is essential that these views are heard and acted upon during the Conference process and beyond the immediate lifetime of this exercise.
The European Youth Forum has already outlined its wish-list and laid down a marker for the Conference’s outcomes. They include:
Meaningful, diverse youth participation continues throughout the Conference and in all future EU decision making;
A binding legacy mechanism is enshrined in the Conference follow up to ensure institutional accountability for implementing the Conference recommendations;
A Positive Youth Employment Journey is a priority theme factored into the recommendations for action coming out of the Conference process.
The political, institutional and financing stars are aligning for youth in 2022 with the EYY and the Conference. The stage is set, the supports and props are there, the casts are gathering. This year can be a breakthrough year for youth, and a defining year for the ‘Family.’
The last words are left for Jacques Delors: “How can we ever build Europe if young people do not see it as a collective project and a vision of their own future?”
