“Change starts with us!” Report: Your Ideas in the Spotlight!

Are you wondering what happened with all the ideas you shared?

They were read one by one, analysed and summarised in a report, and now we are bringing it to the attention of policy makers around Europe!

Since June 2021, we have talked to young people about their vision for the future of Europe and gathered their views and ideas. Our five national partners (Spanish Youth Council, Austrian National Youth Council, National Youth Forum of Bulgaria, Cyprus Youth Council, National Youth Council of Ireland) have organised national and local events, both online and offline, to tell young people why their voices matter and collect their wishes, hopes and ideas.

They went to schools, youth clubs, and university fairs and asked young people about their vision for the future of Europe. They often involved young people who were new to political participation and who did not have as many opportunities as others to form and express their own political opinion; for example, they talked with young people who dropped out from school or live far from big cities.

Furthermore, to make sure that our consultation reflected the diversity of European youth, we partnered up with five international platforms representing young people from rural areas (Rural Youth Europe), young people with disabilities (the European Disability Forum), people from an ethnic and religious minority (Phiren Amenca and the Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organisations), and internationally mobile people (the Erasmus Student Network). In this way, our consultation also included their voices, which are often left out from other exercises of citizens’ participation.

By the end of November 2021, we had gathered 4,021 ideas from young people living in 30 European countries. This report is a synthesis of all their ideas, analysed by researchers associated with the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Ghent University and members of the Flemish Youth Research Platform (JOP).

In 2022, we are continuing to engage young people in a conversation on the future of Europe, and we will publish an update of this report closer to the end of the Conference on the Future of Europe. So, continue contributing with your ideas, so that we can represent young people’s voices where it matters!