“No one is born a good citizen; no nation is born a democracy. Rather, both are processes that continue to evolve over a lifetime. Young people must be included from birth. A society that cuts itself off from its youth severs its lifeline; it is condemned to bleed to death.”—Kofi Annan, Former Secretary-General of the United Nations
Too many young people today feel that their views do not matter, that they cannot influence political outcomes, and that democracy does not work for them. At a formal level, most citizens are not given the right to vote in elections until they reach the age of 18. In Europe, only Austria has reduced the voting age from 18 to 16. However, democracy can be understood in much broader terms as participation in civil society. Without the right to vote, young people have an even stronger claim for comparable political participation.
Involving young people in policies and programmes that impact on their lives and livelihoods is a sine qua non for the credibility of liberal democracies in Europe. Sadly, many countries’ report cards come with a ‘must do better’in this domain. Tokenism is rife, but the defining triptych of Information, consultation and public participation remains unassembled.
There has been a proliferation of dialogue platforms for youth to discuss constructive suggestions for current challenges with experienced leaders, mentors and partner institutions. Many groups that have traditionally occupied a disadvantaged position in society, including women and disabled people, have increasingly entered into dialogue with politicians at local and national levels to promote and press for greater recognition of their concerns, as the instruments of parliamentary democracy have not proved sufficient to answer their needs. These groups are made of citizens, often youth groups, who are actively exercising their rights to free expression, assembly and association to influence the shaping of public policy but they still remain virtual outsiders to the decision-making process.
Citizen participation in government means interaction with public servants. For many years the question of public service reform has been on the agenda of governments in Europe. There is a new focus on ‘transparency,’ ‘openness’ and even ‘participation.’ For this process to become part of the public narrative of government, however, it would need to be organised on a national basis in a manner suited to the underlying purpose of encouraging the ongoing participation of citizens/youth in public decision-making.
Open government strategies and initiatives aim to support democracy and inclusive growth. They are an important tool to increase transparency, accountability and integrity, whilst building stronger relationships between government and citizens allowing them to participate in policy-making. As the OECD Recommendation of the Council on Open Government underlines, open government and stakeholder participation initiatives should include specific efforts “dedicated to reaching out to the most relevant, vulnerable, underrepresented, or marginalised groups in society”. Although youth are a highly heterogeneous group with different backgrounds, skills and capacities, they often find it more difficult than other segments in society to make their voices heard. Youth, therefore, can be considered as one of the groups that requires specific efforts.
In efforts at participatory democracy, last year the EU launched a Conference on the Future of Europe, a citizen-led series of debates and discussions that will enable people from across Europe to share their ideas and help shape a common future. Branded as a bottom-up project to shape and guide political change across the Union, it has seen all 27 member states and their citizens take part in locally organised events and forums, and share their outcomes and ideas on an EU multilingual hub.
Launched on Europe Day, 9 May 2021, it hopes to improve EU engagement with its citizens and create a forum where all have the opportunity to shape what the EU might look like in the next five, ten, twenty years. Running until the middle of 2022, the Conference is an opportunity for people all over the EU to share their ideas about the opportunities and challenges facing the EU, and how to address them.
Certainly, the EU institutions are gung-ho about the exercise and its outcomes, as evidenced by the reactions below:
Guy Verhofstadt (European Parliament), “I was especially struck by how confidently citizen representatives defended their recommendations in their debates with experienced politicians. It’s clear that they count on concrete follow-up, respectful of their broad vision, and not just cherry-picking. All recommendations will need to be addressed in the end.”
Clément Beaune (Presidency of the Council) “The Plenary must take up citizens’ recommendations.
Dubravka Šuica (European Commissioner for Democracy and Demography) “From the beginning, I have had full trust in this deliberative process. But it has exceeded even those expectations: I am impressed by the high quality of the recommendations adopted by the European and National Citizens panels that have completed their work so far. It is therefore all the more important that the citizens recognise themselves in the outcome of these deliberations and later see the impact of the concrete outcome of this Conference. Our democracy deserves this lively and constructive debate.”
As reported in an EP brief, ‘The Conference now nears the finalisation of policy proposals when a European Parliament Plenary session on 8-9 April debated concrete proposals. The Chairs and spokespersons of nine Working Groups tabled consolidated draft proposals, grouped by theme, to the Conference Plenary. The proposals were mainly based on the recommendations of European Citizens’ Panels, as well as national panels, and enriched by ideas from the Multilingual Digital Platform. These proposals were discussed by all Plenary Members. The final Conference Plenary session is scheduled for 29-30 April in Strasbourg, where proposals are expected to be approved by the Plenary on a consensual basis.’
Will this year-long exercise at participatory democracy through the ‘Conference on the Future of Europe,’ turn out to be a Conference on the Future of European Credibility and Public Acceptance? The stakes are high.
Thomas Mc Grath
