Youth Day ! How can the European Parliament be relevant for young people

The 9th July was Youth Day in the European Parliament as the European Youth Forum hosted two separate events to discuss the place of youth in the new European Parliament for the 2014-2019 legislative term.

First, early in the afternoon, a roundtable with MEPs took place in the European Parliament to discuss “Young people and the EU: setting a policy agenda”. Panelists at the roundtable included Brando Benifei (Italy – S&D), Eva Paunova (Bulgaria – EPP), Catherine Bearder (UK – ALDE), Karima Delli (France – Greens) and Lynn Boylan (Ireland – European Left). MEPs Victor Negrescu (Romania – S&D), Paul Ruebig (Austria, EPP), Jean Lambert (UK – Greens), & Richard Corbett (UK – S&D) attended as participants.

Acting as moderator, Youth Forum Secretary General Allan Päll facilitated a panel discussion on the importance of making youth a priority during the next five years. Many different ideas were raised including the importance of education & skills, mobility, entrepreneurship and a throughout implementation of the youth guarantee. The MEPs also discussed the re-establishment of the Youth Intergroup, which has proven to be a useful forum for MEPs to discuss and improve EU initiatives impacting young people, such as Erasmus+ and the Youth Guarantee.Allan Päll stated that most everyone agrees that issues regarding youth, such as unemployment, need to be addressed but it is only through discussion and action that actual solutions might be possible.

Then in the late afternoon, the European Youth Forum held an online “hangout” (debate), “EP elections: what does it mean for youth”. Debating this issue live were Terry Reintke (Greens MEP), Eva Paunova (EPP MEP), Thomas Maes (Young European Socialists), Timo Roeleveld (LYMEC – Young European Liberals) and Christophe Leclercq (founder of EurActiv).

For an hour they discussed several issues, such as the involvement of young people in the electoral campaign, the role of civil society and the media in youth engagement, the results and the rise of anti-EU and populists parties, as well as the priorities of the new European Parliament. Youth employment is unanimously a key issue for the next five years. Christophe Leclercq called on the political representatives to go beyond their ideological differences and try to work on a consensus, making the EU more efficient, reaching the citizen and not sticking to an anti/pro EU or left/right opposition in the hemicycle.

The European Youth Forum was very pleased to bring together some of the youngest new MEPs as well as long-standing supporters from a range of political groups at these events. It was a great opportunity to stress the importance of youth as one of the most important issues of the Parliament’s work. The European Youth Forum would like to thank everyone that was involved in these events and hopes to continue the work with them in the months and years ahead for the benefit of young people across Europe.