Strengthening the EU Youth Dialogue follow-up via monitoring and transparency guidelines

Background

Active participation of young people in policy-making, policy development and decision-making is recognised as a vital component of a healthy democracy. In order to be meaningful, youth participation mechanisms need to be transparent and the interests and concerns of young people need to be considered at each stage of the policy-making cycle.

Now in its 10^th cycle, the EU Youth Dialogue is a mechanism established within the framework of the EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027, which allows young people to become part of the democratic processes at the EU level.

The EESC is proposing to set up guidelines to support the monitoring and dissemination of EUYD outcomes and impact and is calling for long-term, sustainable and well-functioning management of EUYD. The EESC also proposes the establishment of institutional memory processes to increase openness, transparency and accountability of the EUYD process.

Key Points

The EESC:

• underlines that youth participation mechanisms need to be transparent for every stakeholder and that the interests and concerns of young people need to be considered at each stage of the policy-making cycle;
• points at the importance of having monitoring and dissemination strategies in place in each youth participation mechanism to inform young people of the impact that their participation has had, including in EU Youth Dialogue (EUYD) processes;
• proposes that guidelines are set up to support the monitoring and dissemination of the EUYD outcomes and impact; such guidelines have the potential to support the fulfilment of the EUYD’s objectives and increase openness, transparency and accountability towards the numerous young people who participate in the EUYD processes, as well as towards the many others to whom the outcomes and impact are relevant;
• suggests that information on EUYD outcomes should be compiled at pre-agreed intervals and focus on all cycles of the EUYD to be able to track policy and other outcomes linked to particular EUYD cycles;
• proposes that an online repository should be set up where collected documents would be made available; this should be user-friendly, open, free, searchable and regularly updated;
• calls on the Commission and the Member States to support long-term, sustainable and well-functioning management of the EUYD, including the establishment of institutional memory and capacity building processes; in order to achieve this, the EESC suggests establishing a long-term EUYD secretariat supporting EUYD processes across various presidencies and continuously providing expertise, administration and data management.

The text of the draft opinion can be found here.

Additional information

Section: Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship (SOC)

Opinion number: SOC/795

Opinion type: Own-initiative

Rapporteur: Katrina Leitane

Date of adoption by section: 3/9/2024

Result of the vote: 74 in favour/0 against/1 abstentions

Date of adoption in plenary: xxxx – xxxx

Result of the vote:   in favour/ against/ abstentions

Contacts

Press officer: Leonard Mallett

Tel.: 00 32 2 546 93 37

Email: Leonard.Mallett@eesc.europa.eu  

Administrator: Sabrina Borg

Tel.: +32 2 546 97 27

Email: Sabrina.borg@eesc.europa.eu