A broad coalition of Finnish youth and student organisations supports the EU youth initiative conceived by JEF Finland. JEF Finland presented the initiative, which aims to increase young people’s opportunities to influence EU affairs, today on 4.11.2020 to Tytti Tuppurainen, Minister for European Affairs and Ownership Steering, in connection with a public consultation on the Government Report on EU Policy. The organisations also challenge Finnish MEPs to promote the initiative in their own work.
Young people’s opportunities to influence decision-making in the European Union are realised mainly through national elections and European Parliament elections. However, a large number of young people are left outside the right to vote, with very limited opportunities to influence European politics. The European Union youth initiative is a democratic innovation by JEF Finland which, if realised, would give young people without the right to vote a way to bring the issues they consider important onto the agenda of the European Parliament.
The European Union youth initiative proposed by JEF Finland is not a legislative initiative but an initiative for debate. In her programme, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has committed to advancing initiatives coming from the European Parliament, so at best the plenary debates held on the basis of youth initiatives could lead to concrete changes at EU level.
“The voices of those young people who cannot yet vote in elections must also be heard in the European Parliament. Young people have the right to be heard in decision-making, because the decisions being made now are vital for the future of us young people”, comments JEF Finland’s president Iiris Asunmaa.
One of the key aims mentioned in the EU Youth Strategy is bringing the EU closer to young people. JEF Finland’s youth initiative would be a very concrete way to strengthen young people’s voice in Parliament as well as their advocacy skills. Young people’s own voice is heard only faintly in European Union decision-making, even though underage young people too have an enormous number of ideas and a real desire to take part in deciding on EU affairs.
An electronic system would be created for young people without the right to vote, through which they could submit their own initiative proposals and vote on proposals submitted by other young people. The proposal receiving the most votes would go forward as that member state’s annual youth initiative, and the young person who submitted it would be offered the opportunity to present their initiative at a plenary session of the European Parliament. The European Parliament would commit to debating the youth initiative submitted by each member state in its plenary session for a predetermined length of time.
“Parliament has expressed its wish to meet in particular those young people whom it would not otherwise usually encounter. The youth initiative would provide an excellent opportunity for exactly this kind of encounter. We youth organisations hope that, in addition to the minister, Finnish MEPs will take up the idea”, concludes Asunmaa.
The initiative in full in Finnish
The initiative in Swedish
Youth initiative in English
Signatory organisations
JEF Finland
Suomen nuorisoalan kattojärjestö Allianssi ry
Suomen Nuorisovaltuustojen Liitto Nuva ry.
Suomen YK-Nuoret
European Youth Parliament Finland – EYP Finland ry.
Pohjola-Nordenin Nuorisoliitto r.y.
Nuorten mielenterveysseura – Yeesi ry
Suomen Partiolaiset – Finlands Scouter ry
Suomen Lukiolaisten Liitto ry.
Suomen Ammattiin Opiskelevien Liitto – SAKKI ry
Finlands Svenska Skolungdomsförbund FSS rf
Suomen ylioppilaskuntien liitto (SYL) ry.
Suomen opiskelijakuntien liitto – SAMOK ry
Suomen Opiskelija-Allianssi – OSKU ry
Kokoomuksen Nuorten Liitto ry
Sosialidemokraattiset Nuoret ry
Keskustanuoret
Vihreiden nuorten ja opiskelijoiden liitto
Vasemmistonuoret ry
Sosialidemokraattiset Opiskelijat – SONK ry
Keskustaopiskelijat – KOL
Kokoomuksen Opiskelijaliitto Tuhatkunta
Vasemmisto-opiskelijat ry
STTK-Opiskelijat
Akavan opiskelijat
RKP-nuoret, Suomen ruotsalaisen kansanpuolueen nuorisojärjestö r.y.
More information
Iiris Asunmaa
President
JEF Finland
