Give young people the floor, that’s how to succeed with the Future of Europe Conference
Tuesday 22 June 2021
Chances are, if you’re not from inside the EU bubble, you’ve probably never heard of the Conference on the Future of Europe. Yet involving ordinary citizens, especially Europe’s youth, is precisely the key to making this exercise a success.
The opening Plenary of the Conference on the Future of Europe this weekend produced many media statements from politicians about how the Conference is “the first important step in embedding citizen engagement in the EU.” But we did not hear much from actual citizens (perhaps because many did not even join?).
The Conference on the Future of Europe has been a ground for bickering politicians and EU-bashing from its conception, three long years ago. But its messy beginnings need not determine its fate. While it remains highly politicised, much good could come from this participatory democracy exercise. That is if citizens can get a word in edgeways.
According to Guy Verhofstadt, a former Belgian Prime-Minister and one of three co-chairs on an executive board, the purpose of this conference is not to liaise directly with citizens, but rather “to elaborate a vision, a new vision of the future of Europe … based on the input of citizens.” It sounds like citizens will solely play a legitimising role for the Conference, instead of being an opportunity for self-reflection and reforming old habits.
To counter these remarks, citizens that are involved have two important challenges on their hands: not only do they need to strike the right balance between providing constructive and critical feedback on the EU project; they also need to galvanise the interest of other Europeans and renew citizens’ wider engagement in politics. A tall order. For the Conference to be a success both in the eyes of decision-makers and citizens, Europe’s youth could actually play a crucial role.
While young Europeans are generally less hostile to the EU compared to older generations, they don’t have to be politically inclined to share their discontent. Fridays for Future, a youth-driven movement calling for urgent effective climate action from policy-makers, saw thousands of young people from all backgrounds take to the streets collectively. Additionally, the record-high turnout of young people for the 2019 EU elections also showed that their drive for change is real. If listening to differing views from across Europe and traversing traditional party-politics is what the Conference is aiming for, involving young people is the way to achieve it.
In fact, organisers have already recognised the important role young people can play, with at least one third of citizens joining the Conference’s important Plenaries being aged 24 and under. Also, collecting the views of young people is certainly not an issue. Aside from the Institutions’ online platforms and high-level events, several NGO-run projects are taking on Europe-wide grass-roots campaigns. #StandForSomething, for instance, is a youth-led campaign with citizens’ outreach events being held across 16 European countries.
However, what remains to be seen is whether the views of these citizens, young and old(er), will actually be taken onboard to determine Europe’s future; or whether their involvement will just be used as a tool to legitimise the process. A clue to determining this is if politicians will actually let these people speak, you know, as participatory democracy should be.
