Young people need to know that their voice is heard and that it can make an impact, MEP Victor Negrescu argues in a paper published for the Hambach Democracy Dialogue, a conference under the umbrella of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), in which he strongly advocates for reviving youth participation for democracy.

Citing the simultaneous crises of today’s world, the Romanian Social-Democrat MEP underlines that the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the energy and food security crises, have burdened the youth throughout Europe.

In his view, the impact these crises had and still have on the younger generations should be understood at a deeper level, as it correlates with their specific worldview, perceptions, and approaches, which vary greatly from those of previous generations.

One of the ideas that MEP Victor Negrescu proposes through this article is that youth participation can be increased through education.

Moreover, he emphasised, citizenship education platforms can be created to act as hubs that complement the learning process. 

Another important point is that young people need to know that their voice is heard and that it can make an impact.

Last but not least, MEP Victor Negrescu puts a strong focus on the lessons from and for the Central and Eastern Europe young people.

He claims that young Europeans from CEE are divided into two active groups that tend to clash, one group being generally progressive, actively campaigning for global issues, and the other feels that they do not have access to the opportunities they would have liked and tend to relate to more nationalistic, anti-globalization views.

“The reality is that we need an integrated approach unifying all available resources, involving all relevant stakeholders and democratizing the process. In the face of the current challenges and the rising impact of populist ideas, in Central and Eastern Europe it is crucial, in the years to come, to invest in developing democratic education and participation, especially for young people. The resources that we invest today in the younger generation of the region will translate in the years to come into the actual resilience and strength of those democracies and the capacity of the European Union to maintain its democratic values in the future”, he concluded.

The Hambach Democracy Dialogue (HDD) is the FES annual flagship conference on the future of European Democracy with distinguished participants from across Europe. The Hambach Democracy Papers reflect on key discussions and the most relevant questions regarding Europe’s democracy.