R12: Youth at the Table: Make Participation a Right, Not a Gesture

Young people across Europe bear the long-term consequences of political
decisions on climate,

housing, social rights, and fiscal sustainability, yet their influence in formal
democratic

institutions remains limited. While youth parliaments and councils are not a new
mechanism,

they exist in only around half of European countries and often lack a solid
legal basis, stable

funding, and institutional support to translate into decision-making.
Participation is too frequently

symbolic, dependent on political goodwill, short-term projects, or voluntary
effort.

This is not primarily a problem of youth disengagement, but of democratic
structures that

concentrate power in the hands of established actors and create unequal access
based on

intersecting forms of discrimination. Public authorities often outsource
participation to short-term

projects or underfunded organisations, while retaining decision-making power.
Without

consistent legal guarantees and accountability mechanisms, participation risks
reproducing

existing privileges and undermining trust when young people’s input receives no
visible

follow-up. Existing legislative frameworks, including Article 165 TFEU, Article
11 TEU, and

Council of Europe standards on youth participation, already recognise the
importance of youth

involvement. However, these frameworks lack binding obligations, enforcement,
and consistent

implementation across Member States.

We therefore demand that youth participation becomes a guaranteed right,
anchored in law

through independent structures, adequate resources, inclusive access, and
mandatory

accountability.

We demand that EU institutions, within their competences:

● Propose and adopt a Council Recommendation on a European Youth Participation

Framework, setting minimum requirements for independent, representative national

youth councils, youth parliaments and student unions.

● Integrate these standards into EU youth cooperation instruments and reporting
cycles,

ensuring consistent evaluation of their implementation and impact.

● Use EU funding programmes to incentivise Member States to implement these

standards, including participatory governance rules, transparency requirements,
and

inclusive access measures for marginalised youth.

● Introduce Youth Impact Assessments for relevant legislative and policy
proposals,

particularly those with significant intergenerational impacts.

● Ensure regular monitoring and public reporting on the implementation and
impact of

youth participation mechanisms.

We demand that Member States:

● Adopt or update national legislation to create or recognise independent,
representative

national youth councils with a defined consultative role on youth-relevant
legislation and

budgets.

● Guarantee stable, multi-year public financing for youth councils and
participation

infrastructures through transparent rules that protect independence and prevent
undue influence.

● Establish or strengthen national youth parliaments with formal institutional
links to

parliament, including mechanisms ensuring parliamentary committees respond to

adopted youth resolutions and report on follow-up actions.

● Protect civic space and youth organising by fully safeguarding freedom of
association

and assembly in law and practice.

● Create monitoring and accountability mechanisms to track how youth
participation

inputs are reflected in final policy decisions, including regular public
reporting.

We as FYEG will:

● Develop and deploy a shared advocacy toolkit for Member Organisations to
campaign

for the legal recognition, independence, and adequate funding of youth councils,
youth

parliaments and student unions.

● Collect, consolidate and disseminate best practices on consultation rights,

accountability mechanisms, and public-authority response procedures.

● Work with Member Organisations to advocate for youth participation reforms at
national

level, with a focus on the inclusion of marginalized youth and those facing
intersecting

forms of discrimination.

We call on the Green political family to integrate these demands into political
programmes and

legislative priorities at EU and national levels, ensuring their consistent
implementation across

other levels of governance. We call on them to act decisively to defend civic
space and youth

organisations against undue influence, recognising that independent youth
representation is a

basic right of young people.

We call on national parliaments, governments, and local authorities to stop
treating youth

participation as a temporary project and to legislate for permanent, inclusive
and independent

youth participation bodies, backed by stable public funding and a guaranteed
impact on decision-making.