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#1 Connecting EU with Youth

Foster the sense of youth belonging to the European project and build a bridge between the EU and young people to regain trust and increase participation.

An increasing number of young people lack trust in the EU, encounter difficulties in understanding its principles, values, and functioning. Democratic deficits in EU processes have also been identified as one of the reasons for rising euroscepticism among young people.

Goals:

  • Guarantee meaningful youth involvement and dialogue in all stages of EU decision making by improving existing participatory mechanisms and creating new ones.

  • Ensure equal access to quality impartial and youth-friendly information about how the EU works, how to engage in it and what opportunities it offers.

  • Introduce and increase education about Europe and the EU in formal and non-formal settings.

  • Guarantee fair representation of all member states in political and administrative EU bodies, in line with the principle of equal citizenship.

  • Increase the budget and the impact of the EU youth programmes.

  • Build young people’s trust in the EU project by addressing the democratic deficit, lack of transparency and visibility.

  • Institutionalise the assessment of youth-friendliness, impact and effect of EU policies.

You can find the thematic report of the Youth Goal #1 here:

Thematic Report