The idea to introduce an EU Youth Test – to assess the impact of new EU policies on young people – is gaining momentum to create a lasting outcome of the Year.
The European Year of Youth (EYY) 2022 is coming to an end, or not just yet? The busy calendar of youth-related activities is reaching its conclusion. Policy makers and youth stakeholders are shifting their discussion to possible legacies and lasting outcomes of the Year with calls to extend the Year beyond 2022 as well.
The European Year of Youth followed four goals, closely linked to the EU Youth Strategy: i. Renew the positive perspectives for young people while highlighting how the green and digital transitions offer opportunities for young people, ii. Empower and support young people, especially young people with fewer opportunities, to acquire relevant knowledge and competences and become active and engaged citizens and actors of change, iii. Support young people to acquire a better understanding of, and actively promote the various opportunities available to them, from the EU, national, regional or local levels, iv. Mainstream youth policy across all relevant EU policy fields, and encourage the bringing of a youth perspective into policymaking at all levels. In order to fulfil the goals, the EU institutions and national coordinators in all Member States organised around 7’500 events and activities with and for young people. While many of these events would likely have taken place independently of the Year of Youth and simply adopted the label, the Year has undoubtedly put a stronger focus on young people and saw more activities in this field. Notably, the Level Up! Conference on 28-29 October 2022, organised by the European Youth Forum (EYF), saw 1’400 young people taking over the European Parliament (EP) for discussions on how to strengthen the advocacy, organisation and communications of youth in the EU. Further, youth organisations and stakeholders expressed that they felt that more doors at the EU institutions opened for them and that there were more open ears for their concerns than previously. In the EYY policy dialogues, for example, each European Commissioner spent two hours welcoming young people and exchanging with them on their views, interests and concerns on that specific policy field.
While the mainstreaming of youth policy in the EU made progress, the question regarding the legacy of the Year of Youth remains. In the official closing conference on 6 December 2022 at the EP, the Commission suggested that it will continue certain successful activities beyond this year, namely the Youth Voices platform, the Youth Talks and that future citizens’ panels should always consist to one third of young people (based on the Conference on the Future of Europe, see SwissCore article). Further, the idea to introduce an EU youth test – originally put forward by the European Youth Forum – has picked up momentum, as a significant number of EU youth ministers (Austria, Belgium, France, Latvia, Romania, Slovenia) publicly support this proposal. An EU youth test would assess the impact of new EU policies on young people and include them in the decision-making process if relevant. The European Parliament is also supporting this proposal in a resolution from 24 November 2022.
In 2023, the Year of Youth will be followed by the European Year of Skills. This initiative is motivated by the ongoing skills shortage in Europe and the large need for skills to achieve the green and digital transitions. The Year will aim to boost momentum for education and training, especially of lifelong learning in Europe, and to “promote a mindset of reskilling and upskilling”. The Year of Skills should promote investment in training systems, with a special focus on supporting transitions between jobs and integrating more people into the labour market. Additionally, the Year wants to attract more skilled people from outside the Union. Lastly, the Year wants to support tools for easier recognition of prior qualifications which represents a priority of the upcoming Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU. However, the proposal for the Year of Skills still needs to be adopted by Parliament and Council, which is likely to happen only in Q1 2023. Therefore, there are calls by some countries and by youth stakeholders to extend the Year of Youth until May 2023 or beyond.