ENGSO Youth at the EU Youth Conference in Dublin
The conference marked the beginning of the 12th cycle of the EU Youth Dialogue, led by Ireland, Lithuania and Greece. The cycle will focus on European Youth Goal #4: Information and Constructive Dialogue, exploring how young people can access reliable information, critically evaluate the information they encounter and participate in constructive dialogue.
The conference also looked beyond the current EU Youth Strategy, bringing young people together to consider what the next European Youth Goals should look like.
What was our role at the conference?
As part of the conference, Chloe joined a working group focused on democracy and meaningful participation, working with young people and ministerial delegates from across Europe to review and amend European Youth Goal #9: Space and Participation for All.
The working group explored what meaningful participation should look like for young people today, including how young people can have a genuine role in shaping the decisions that affect them. This was developed by identifying issues young people face today when it comes to participation.
For ENGSO Youth, the conference provided an opportunity to bring the experiences of young people in grassroots sport into the wider European youth policy process. Young people already take on diverse roles within sport, from athletes and volunteers to coaches, leaders and decision-makers, making sport an important setting in which participation can be experienced in practice.
This highlighted the importance of mainstreaming meaningful youth participation across different policy areas and sectors. Young people should not only have a voice in decisions labelled as “youth policy”, but also be able to influence decisions that affect them across areas such as sport, education, health, employment and the environment.
Alongside the work on Goal #9, other working groups focused on different areas of the future European Youth Goals and developed policy recommendations. Together, these recommendations brought together the perspectives and priorities of young people from across Europe and will contribute to the wider process of shaping the next generation of European youth policy.
What happens next?
The conversation does not stop in Dublin. ENGSO Youth will continue to contribute to the 12th cycle of the EU Youth Dialogue, including through an upcoming consultation linked to the cycle’s theme of Information and Constructive Dialogue. The consultation will provide an opportunity for ENGSO Youth to gather perspectives from our Young Delegates, Alumni Club and wider network and feed the experiences of young people in grassroots sport into the process.
The next stage of the EU Youth Dialogue will continue under the Lithuanian Presidency, followed by Greece. ENGSO Youth will remain engaged throughout the cycle, continuing to create opportunities for young people to contribute to the conversations and decisions that shape their future.
