As a legacy of the European Year of Youth 2022, the EU takes concrete steps to further youth mainstreaming.
For many years now, the EU has been stressing how important young people are for the Union and that the EU wants to support them and include them in European affairs. This discourse has gained even more in importance in the wake of the pandemic, where European Commission (EC) President von der Leyen announced in her State of the European Union address 2021 that the EU wants to give back to young people who suffered most from the pandemic. It was also in that speech that she declared 2022 to be the European Year of Youth (EYY). Two years later, the EC looked back at the EYY outcomes in a Commission Communication, published on 10 January 2024.
The Communication recalls the outcomes of the EYY in 2022, for example the 13’000 activities that were organised under this label or the youth policy dialogues between young people and European Commissioners. Overall, the key outcome should be the youth mainstreaming within the EU institutions. This was also one of the biggest expectations that young people expressed for the EYY. Some progress in this regard has already been announced, such as the creation of the first EU Youth Action Plan in EU external action (see SwissCore article) or the continuation of the youth policy dialogues on the highest level. The EC Communication now adds a new important element to strengthen the youth mainstreaming in the EU further: The EC announced with the Communication the introduction of a youth check, also called youth test. This is a tangible move to more meaningfully including young people in EU decision-making. The introduction of a youth check also responds to the demands from the European Youth Forum (YFJ), the European Parliament (resolution) and a number of EU Member States (see SwissCore article). Youth checks are in operation in some EU countries (Austria, Flanders, France, Germany) and in the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC).
How will this new youth check work? It is essentially an impact assessment tool to ensure that young people are taken into account for new EU policies. Concretely, the youth check will assess every new EU policy initiative on its relevance for youth. If it is considered relevant, then a dedicated youth consultation will be run in the form of a survey or targeted discussions. Based on the consultations, the EC will analyse the potential impact of the policy on young people. Lastly, the Regulatory Scrutiny Board verifies whether the impact was properly analysed. Legally, the youth check will not take the form of a new EU regulation but will be included in the existing Better Regulation framework. The regulation will be complemented with youth-specific instruments under the EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027. To support the implementation of the youth check, the EC will also launch a series of youth mainstreaming roundtables with youth organisations, EU Member States and other EU institutions, in connection with the annual publication of the Commission’s work programme.
The Commission also commits to increase the internal capacity to work with young people with its Commission Youth Network with youth correspondents in all departments. This should strengthen cross-sector cooperation and youth mainstreaming and is linked with a new youth stakeholders platform group. Further, the EC aims to strengthen the EU Youth Dialogue by involving more and diverse youth organisations, and to maintain the significant youth participation in the citizens’ panels. With regards to the Erasmus+ programme, the Commission will explore the feasibility of providing micro-grants for youth projects. Finally, the EC also encourages all Member States to establish national or regional youth coordinators, following the example of the EU youth coordinator.
The Communication contains a list of all Commission activities in five policy areas that are of great importance for young people, namely: Health and wellbeing, environment and climate, education and training, international cooperation and European values, and employment and inclusion.