This article is part of our special report Voice to the youth: Political participation in the EU and beyond.
Young people are statistically underrepresented in both national and EU parliaments, EU data shows. This, in combination with the ageing population of European countries, leaves young people ‘de facto’ at the margin of politics,
As the European Year of Youth draws to a close and policymakers begin to look ahead to the 2024 EU elections, representatives are looking to increase young peoples’ participation in decision-making processes at both the national and regional levels.
“As president, I will do my best to convince young people to vote and always choose Europe, because Europe was there during the pandemic. Today Europe is there and I want Europe to still be there tomorrow,” European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said in an interview with EURACTIV.
Con gli estremisti non si può lavorare, afferma la presidente del PE Roberta Metsola [VIDEO]
In her view, youth plays a critical role in shaping society and the future of Europe.
A ‘de facto’ trend
Yet, young people remain ‘de facto’ at the margin of political decisions, both for the lack of their presence in parliaments and the ageing population trends in EU countries.
According to 2018 data from the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, four member states only permit those 25 and over to stand in national elections, with seven putting the age limit at 20-21 and a further 16 setting it at 18 years and older.
The minimum age to vote in EU Parliament elections is 18 in most member states, with exceptions in Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia (21), Romania (23), and Italy and Greece (25).
The national voting age is 18 in all member states except Austria and Malta, where it is 16, and Greece, where it is 17.
Lack of participation
Despite generally low age limits, there is a ‘de facto’ lack of participation of young people in EU policymaking.
The youngest MEP sitting in the European legislature is 24-year-old Kira Marie Peter-Hansen from Denmark. However, the average age of MEPs is 49.5. In the previous mandate, the average age was 53.
The pattern holds true for member states: The majority of national parliaments across the EU have a high average age, with few young MPs, generally in lower-ranking positions.
Looking at newly elected parliaments, in Italy, the average is around 51, while in Sweden no MP under 30 years old was elected.
According to Hannah Vanbelle from the Brussels citizen movement Agora, the low share of young members in parliaments “is not very representative” of the young generations.
“I would even argue that parliaments should have an over-representation of young people, because a lot of the decisions that are being made are for the future,” she said during the Public Participation and Deliberative Democracy Festival held in Brussels in October.
The continent is getting older
Another element affecting both electoral campaigns and political priorities is the EU’s ageing population.
EU Commission Vice-President Dubravka Šuica told EURACTIV in an interview that this is a fact that should be celebrated, due to improved public health extending life expectancies.
Legal migration key to rebalancing EU's demography, Commissioner says
It will be hard for the EU to solve its ‘demographic problem’ with the absence of legal migration, EU Commission Vice-President Dubravka Šuica told EURACTIV in a video interview on the day the global population reached 8 billion.
However, the demography of the EU creates a tangible impact on policy priorities. With an average age of 44, the majority of voters turning up at the polls are less connected with issues directly affecting young people, creating a propensity for skew towards older generations’ political interests.
Deliberative democracies, a window of opportunity?
Beyond elections, the EU is encouraging alternative forms of political participation, such as deliberative democracy: Putting active debate and discussion by citizens at the heart of policymaking.
In 2022, the EU held its first deliberative democracy experiment, the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE). Throughout the process, randomly chosen EU citizens were selected and involved in policy discussions ranging from the economy to values to cultural priorities.
To cement the impact of such discussions, however, it is crucial that the recommendations are followed up on, a procedure currently in process at the EU level.
[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]
Source: euractiv.com
