SLEDY - Structured Local EU Dialogue for Youth

The Council of Youth Ministers has set the recent priority of enabling all youth to engage in a diverse,
connected and inclusive Europe. In this context, one of the issues that has become increasingly
concerning is the decreased EU political participation. This is apparently linked to them seeing a lack
by the EU in trying to engage with them or in the youth not knowing how to more directly engage with
the EU and its policy making, which they still see as potentially highly effective in improving their
socio-economic condition overall (Eurobarometer Youth:2017). The latter point is more relevant
because objectively the initiatives at the EU level to engage the youth at all levels are many
(http://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/141/youth). One such initiative has been the
Structured Dialogue, followed by the EU Youth Dialogue (Official Journal of the European Union C
456) after the Council resolution of May 2017 and with the aim building on the previous experience
until 2020, where youth are engaged in dialogues with policy makers on an 18-months cycle basis
with the general aim of building an open, diverse and strong Europe.
The Eurobarometer survey, which “in September 2017 consulted about 11,000 citizens aged 15 to
30, shows that they mostly agree with the need to:
- Promote critical thinking and the ability to search for information to combat fake news and
extremism (49%);
- Give easy access to information about moving and working abroad (49%);
- Promote behavioral change through environmentally-friendly initiatives such as sustainable
transport or recycling systems across Europe (40%)”.
(Flash Eurobarometer, European Youth Sept. 2017:8)
Fact-based information, more accessibility to information and work opportunities, an improved
sensitivity to environmental issues represent the top 3 concerns of the european youth that they
would like the EU to focus even more on. These themes are being addressed (see:
https://europa.eu/youth/week/eu-event-programme_en) but from a first study it appears that many
youth, and in particular the youth in the partner countries of this proposal, do not know of these
opportunities or feel them as far. This is then a highly potential opportunity to create a link and build a
concrete initiative which would not only create a sustainable bridge between these opportunities and
the beneficiaries in the target countries; disseminate on these opportunities while training the
beneficiaries; give them the relevant legislative and policy tools but also develop a context-specific
booklet that can be used to disseminate on this in schools, universities, youth and political
associations.
The Eurobarometer research also highlighted the degree of participation (Flash Eurobarometer,
European Youth Sept. 2017:7) showing how 44% participated in political-related areas, namely local
organizations for the improvement of the local community, political organizations, human rights
promotion, environmental issues, NGOs. Yet a staggering 47% did not participate in none of the
above.
In the context of a more active political participation of the youth and in particular of the development
of more information and constructive dialogues at the EU level the following proposal is being
presented:
General Objective:
- G.O. Promoting the active participation of young people in the EU democratic life and fostering political debate and dialogues in accordance to objective 4 of the EU youth Strategy 2020
“Information & Constructive Dialogue”.
Specific Objectives:
In line with the targets of goal 4 of the EU Youth Strategy 2020 the specific objectives proposed are
- S.O.1. Empower the capacity of EU youth beneficiaries to consume and analyze information, news
and hate speech both online and offline and produce information on the climate-migration-peace
building nexus.
- S.O.2. Equip the beneficiary EU youth with the policy and participatory instruments to actively and
consciously engage in the political issues specifically in relation to the Climate-Migration-Peace
building nexus (hereby CMP)
Results:
- R1) 44 EU youth empowered and equipped to experience a facilitated way to verify the accuracy
and reliability of information and to navigate the media landscape and to actively participate in
constructive dialogues in the political landscape of the EU and its institutions on the climatemigration-
peace building nexus.
- R2) 30 EU youth actively engaged in a direct dialogue with EU institutions and representatives via
publications, workshops, dialogues, debates and ) at the core 3-days event in Brussels (3 Italy, 3
Spain (+2 accompanying persons each), 24 Belgium) on the climate-migration-peace building nexus.
Activities outline:
- A.1.1. Structured Local EU Dialogue for Youth (SLEDY) session;
- A.1.2. Awarded question papers and videos selection;
- A.1.3. 3-days Core Dialogue