AER Youth Regional Network Plenary Session and Seminar on Eastern Partnership:

“Youth Mobility: Going East!”

Wroclaw, Poland, 27-28 October 2011

Speech by Andrew BOFF, member of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I’m very pleased to be here and to be able to contribute to this plenary meeting of the Youth Regional Network and its seminar on youth mobility.

I am here today representing the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. The Congress is an assembly of elected representatives from towns, cities and regions of 47 European countries that are member states of the Council of Europe. More specifically, I am a member of the Current Affairs Committee of the Congress, a new committee created a year ago, which will be dealing, among other things, with questions concerning young people.

It is a particular pleasure for me to be here today because only last week, a representative of your network, Ms Maria Martinsson, took part in a hearing on youth participation organised by the Current Affairs Committee in Strasbourg, and I would like to use this opportunity to thank her again for her input into our discussions.

Today, I would like to reciprocate and present to you the work of the Congress regarding the situation of young people, a matter that is very relevant to our own work as local and regional councillors.

Indeed, if the Congress, or its predecessor the Conference of Local Authorities to be exact, was set up over 50 years ago, it was because the Council of Europe understood that local councillors, being closer to citizens, are in a better position to understand citizens’ needs and wishes at local level, and are therefore better able to help local people.  Thanks to this proximity to our fellow citizens, local councillors are able to campaign on local issues which affect the people living in our towns and cities, and to develop links with all parts of our communities.  Your member of parliament can seem a long way away, in your country’s capital city, but your local councillor is just around the corner.

This is why local and regional authorities have a very important role to play in addressing the concerns of young people, their participation in the life of communities – indeed, their participation in democracy – and the protection of their rights. Local councillors are also best placed to work with young people in disadvantaged urban communities and neighbourhoods, to make sure that they have access to public services and that their social rights are guaranteed at the grassroots.

Over the past twenty years, the work of the Congress regarding youth focused, on the one hand, on promoting their participation – first and foremost by encouraging a framework for such participation, such as representative structures of young people at local level. On the other hand, we are currently looking deeper into the question of the rights of young people and how local authorities can ensure the exercise of these rights at the grassroots. Last but not least, we would like to assess the current situation of young people at the grassroots and their seeming disillusionment with, and disengagement from, democracy today. During the recent Council of Europe Forum for the Future of Democracy in Limassol, Cyprus – on 13 October, to be exact – this phenomenon was described as Democratic Disconnect. In other words, all mechanisms seem to be in place, but they don’t seem to be working. Why?

Let me take these three issues one by one, beginning with participation.

We are convinced that youth participation in democracy is crucial for democratic development. Genuine democracy is built first and foremost at local level, from the bottom up. Citizens gain their first democratic experience as young people at the local level and it is there that they learn about, and interact the most with democratic structures. However, effective participation of young people can only be achieved if the political will exists and if elected representatives are committed to developing a permanent dialogue with them. In the Congress, we have translated this commitment into a set of principles and guidelines for such participation, brought together in the European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life. The Charter was first adopted in 1992, and further revised in 2003.

For the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, and here I quote from the Charter’s preamble:

“Participation in the democratic life of any community is about more than voting or standing for election, although these are important elements. Participation and active citizenship is about having the right, the means, the space and the opportunity and where necessary the support to participate in and influence decisions and engage in actions and activities so as to contribute to building a better society.”

This goes beyond the understanding of youth participation solely as political involvement or participation in youth councils or parliaments.  To participate means having influence on and responsibility for decisions and actions that affect the lives of young people.  And as the Charter states, participation applies to ALL young people, from all walks of life, regardless of their social and/or ethnic origins, without discrimination.

The Congress’ Charter does not treat young people as victims or as a vulnerable group that needs protection.  They are seen as active players in organisations or in community life, as partners with lots of potential, talents and strengths. They should have the opportunity to express their needs and to find ways of satisfying them.  In fact, youth participation is a sort of youth-adult partnership in which everyone’s voice is heard and taken seriously, in which aims, objectives, roles, responsibilities and decisions are negotiated and agreed upon collectively.  The skills and talents of young people and the experience and wisdom of adults come together in a mutually supportive atmosphere: no one instructs the other.

Youth participation takes many different forms, from voluntary work to being active in organisations, from participation in non-formal education to campaigning activities.  The Congress’ Charter specifically aims to promote youth participation at local and regional levels by providing concrete ideas and instruments – such as encouraging the setting-up of local or regional youth councils and assemblies, or the creation of youth media at local level. I should add that, while the Charter is not a legally binding instrument, the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers, which represents the 47 member states of our Organisation, adopted the recommendation supporting its implementation.  This means that the member states have a moral responsibility to put it into practice, even though they are not legally bound to do so. 

Youth participation is one way of ensuring the exercise of the rights of young people, mostly political and civil rights, and their representation in decision-making. Youth councils in particular, having a consultative role with regard to local and regional councils, provide an input into local and regional decisions from the young people’s point of view. In the future, we may be looking into ways of making this “youth-local council” link more permanent and more effective. However, participation alone does not guarantee a huge aspect of human rights – social rights, which is why the Congress has taken up this subject, starting from a particularly vulnerable group of young people – those living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

Our work on this subject resulted in a resolution, a Congress text addressed to local and regional authorities and containing a set of proposals for action. This resolution, on the situation of young people in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, was adopted in October 2010.

Our research and exchanges of our best practices in preparing this report showed us that devising a policy to address the problems of these young people is not simple.  The multiple difficulties faced by young people from disadvantaged areas mean that a “one-size fits all” policy approach is not appropriate. The challenge we, local and regional elected representatives, are facing is to be more inventive in the definition of our youth policies so we are able to reach out to young people from all walks of life.

The first step in our eyes is that local and regional elected representatives must ensure that municipal and regional youth departments are set up, or strengthened if they already exist, and that they have the capacity and competences to design effective, evidence-based policies and programmes.  Obviously, in the spirit of our Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life, we must do this with the full and meaningful participation of young people from disadvantaged areas.  We can also turn to the voluntary sector for support.

Local and regional authorities must also set aside the misconception that adults know better than young people.  We must be prepared to engage in dialogue with young people, to consult them and work with them.  By involving them in the planning and decision-making processes, not only will we ensure that policies and programmes are responsive to their needs and expectations, but young people will feel motivated and, hopefully, develop some feeling of ownership and responsibility for these programmes and for their own future.  This also implies that we must find the ways and means to engage with young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods.  As laudable as our Charter on participation is, it cannot change the fact that these young people are less likely to beat an active path to opportunities for participation such as youth councils or parliaments than youth from advantageous backgrounds.

Finally, we urge local and regional authorities to provide accessible and meaningful opportunities for disadvantaged youth to promote their social integration by establishing frameworks for co-operation and development, proposing advice and guidance, as well as organising activities, and in particular supporting, either financially or in kind, their own projects with a social, economic or human purpose.

Since the adoption of its resolution, the Congress has been working with the Council of Europe Directorate of Youth and Sport on the ENTER! Project, which aims to develop a recommendation to national governments on policies for improving access to social rights for young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods. One of the elements of this project is a long-term training course for youth workers and youth leaders working in disadvantaged neighbourhoods.  The objective is to develop their skills and competencies in setting up projects to help youth in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. We hope that these efforts will bring about concrete results in improving the plight of these young people.

Last but not least, a few words about our most recent initiative, brought about by the increasing disillusionment of young people that we are witnessing in today’s political life, and indeed society as a whole. This disillusionment is symbolised by the participation of many young people in social movements and demonstrations across our continent, and we think it is time to review the state of youth engagement in Europe and ask the question: what’s going wrong?

This compelled us in the Current Affairs Committee of the Congress to decide to prepare a report on the subject, with concrete proposals for action. We are at the very beginning of the preparation process, and the hearing last week was indeed a kick-off phase, an official launch of the report preparation, if you wish. Unfortunately, our rapporteur on the subject, Ms Els Ampe, was not able to come to today’s meeting.

In our report, we will be looking in particular into the specific context of the current situation. Whereas previous generations experienced the boom years of the post-war period, the youth of today are facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, especially in the Eurozone.  High levels of unemployment,[1] increasing disadvantage and exclusion, austerity measures, corruption are what young people wake up to every morning.  It is not surprising that citizens have lost trust in governments, and we are witnessing, on the one hand, widespread political apathy with regard to “established” institutions and, on the other hand, an active, sometimes violent, rejection of mainstream politics and indeed politicians and new forms of activism relying heavily on social networks and new technologies.

At the same time, transitions to adult life are longer and more complex, it takes longer to establish independent households and families, and young people are economically more reliant on their families and social networks.

These are some of the concerns that are uniting young people today and taking them out on to the streets where they are vociferously giving voice to their disillusionment.  Although Puerta del Sol was the starting point in Spain, protests soon spread to other Spanish towns and cities.  “Protests in Lisbon, Paris, Athens and elsewhere show that Europe’s lost generation has finally found its voice”, if I can quote from the media.[2]  The so-called Arab Spring seems to have travelled across the sea and may be fast becoming a European Summer – from Indignados in Spain and youth protests in Greece to Generation Precaire which started in France and the Occupy Wall Street movement that we witnessed around half the globe over the past two weeks alone. 

So, in the Congress we would like to look at what can be done to bring young Europeans back in, to motivate them, to do away with their reluctance to vote and encourage them to participate in mainstream political processes. The fact that young people are clamouring loudly in the streets shows they want to make their voices heard.  It is imperative, therefore, to give them that opportunity, not pay lip service to them, but to ensure they have a real role in decision-making. Full access to education, adequate healthcare, employment opportunities, financial services and full participation in public life are among other issues that the report will examine. It could also examine the use of new technologies in promoting youth participation, especially in view of the wide use of new forms of communication in the recent demonstrations.

We believe that co-operation with your Youth Regional Network is important in the preparation of this report, and we already had some input from you during our hearing, which I mentioned at the beginning. More concretely, we could co-operate on how to achieve true participation of democratically elected youth structures in real decision-making, which is still rare. Wed could ponder, for example, on establishing a government-youth co-management system with young people, along the lines that exist within the Joint Council on Youth.

These are just some ideas. I look forward to our discussions and your thoughts during these two days, which, I am sure, will be of great use for our further work.

Thank you.