At the end of last week, the official signing of the European Charter for Youth and Democracy took place - an initiative of the Commission for Social Policy, Education, Employment, Research and Culture /SEDEC/ to the European Committee of the Regions and the European Youth Forum - an organization representing millions of young people from all over Europe.
The mayor of Gabrovo, Tanya Hristova, who is the chairman of SEDEC, commented minutes after the adoption of the Charter:
"The Charter is not only a tangible contribution from our Commission to the Year of Youth, it is also a follow-up to the Future of Europe conference and its conclusions on citizen engagement and the involvement of young people in our European local democracies." , that they have many opportunities in front of them, they also face many challenges, so we all need to create concrete policies that are in their support" - Tanya Hristova also emphasized and thanked the leadership of the Committee of Regions, because in this way the document created for young people is filled with life and energy.
A European Charter for Youth and Democracy offers specific recommendations related to the democratic participation of young people in social, political and civic life at three governance levels - local/regional, national and European. It is aimed at building and consolidating a democratic space tailored to the needs of young people to ensure permanent representation of young people in the EU. The Charter takes a participatory approach that involves young people through numerous youth organisations, including youth branches of national and European parties, as well as the community of young elected politicians. The proposed recommendations presented by the above youth representatives serve as guidelines for discussion as well as examples to be followed.
The themes of the Charter are mainly divided into four areas: education, cooperation, information; youth empowerment, leadership and democratic participation; role of new technologies and digitization; mainstreaming youth issues into policies and political representation. The document contains specific recommendations regarding each of the four areas covered, which are divided into Local and Regional levels; Member State level and EU level.
You can familiarize yourself with the text of the European Charter for Youth and Democracy here.
