19
clubs carried out by teachers at schools are
youth councils is deemed essential for the
recognised by local authorities. With the
effective involvement in youth issues.
exception of Switzerland no particular le-
There is a lack of comparative data about
gal framework for financial support for NFE
the level of participation of youth in vari-
initiatives exists.
ous activities according to country, age group and other characteristics. However, evidence from the contributions show
2.3 The right to civic, political and social participation
that there is a difference among countries
“ Even though §8 of the Youth Act obliges communities to include young people in the decision making process, a real co-decision making does not happen as most of the youth councils feel that they are listened to , but not heard.” Allianssi
area; in Romania only 2 % of youth are
and groups within the same country : in Portugal active participation of young migrants is considered to be a problematic members of NGOs and most of them come from urban areas; in Estonia opportunities depend on the financial resources of the municipality concerned. MOs have also identified the need for finanfor better information on existing projects. Furthermore, the absence of real co-de-
With regard to the right to participation,
cision mechanisms was stressed by most
two principal questions were raised by the
organisations.
questionnaire : first, whether channels for
Perhaps the main concern of MOs is the im-
youth participation are available in practice
pact of youth action; almost all of them feel
and second which different levels of par-
that a framework for a structured dialogue
ticipation exist. As an answer to the latter
is missing and as a result young people’s
question voting and eligibility, co-decision
opinion is not taken into consideration.
processes, volunteering, membership in youth organisations and councils, student
Voting and political awareness
representation and participation in atypi-
Political participation is often considered
cal groups were mentioned by MOs.
to be the cornerstone of active citizenship. The voting rate among young people is sig-
Forms and level of youth participation
nificantly lower than that for the rest of the
Active participation at national and regional
population. CTR interprets this repulsion
levels is in general guaranteed by the MOs.
on behalf of young people as due to vari-
However in some countries, like Portugal
ous factors : first, young people feel that
and Moldova, infrastructure for civic and
they cannot influence political decisions in
social involvement remains fragile and the
their country; second, political parties rare-
establishment of regional or municipal
ly address young people’s problems; last,
Findings
cial support of youth organisations, and