European Youth Forum Gathers Support for Youth Rights at Green Congress

Brussels, 22 February 2014 // Today, the European Youth Forum gathered support from over 30 Greens MEPs and candidates for its Love Youth Future campaign, which aims to get candidates for May’s elections to sign up to the Youth Forum’s pledges committing the next European Parliament to implementing youth rights.

The European Youth Forum attended the European Green Party’s congress in Brussels and received strong support for its election campaign “LoveYouthFuture”. LoveYouthFuture aims to get candidates for the European Parliament to commit to push for youth rights, and make Europe a better place to live, study and work for young people.

The European Youth Forum firmly believes that the EU has a crucial role to play in improving the situation of young people. Young people’s rights have been overridden during the economic crisis and the prolongation of the austerity measures. Therefore upcoming elections are a great opportunity to implement a “New Deal for and with youth” in Europe and to make sustainable investments for youth rights.

To fight the growing nationalism in Europe, Europe-wide problems, such as unemployment, job security and mobility should lead to Europe-wide solutions. This is why we are now urging MEPs and candidates to sign our pledges and to commit to ensuring the right of young people to have access to jobs, quality education and free movement, in a Europe where they will be able to define their own future.

The Love Youth Future campaign includes pledges on protection for young workers, volunteers and interns; quality education; the implementation of the Youth Guarantee; reducing barriers to the mobility of young people; as well as encouraging Member States to lower the voting age to 16.

Peter Matjašič, President of the European Youth Forum, comments:

“The European Youth Forum is delighted to have received strong support from Greens MEPs and candidates. We firmly believe that this coming Parliament will have the opportunity to create a sustainable future through investing in youth rights. Nowadays, almost one out of four young Europeans are unemployed and many others struggle to access to quality jobs. Solutions have to be found at a European level.

In the most recent European elections in 2009, youth absenteeism was very high – almost 65 per cent – even though young people feel more European than the older generations. This absenteeism is mainly due to the fact that European political parties do not focus enough on young people in their campaigns and do not put forward policies related to youth issues. This needs to change, youth issues need to be more discussed during electoral campaigns and that is why we are urging MEPs and candidates to sign up our Love Youth Future pledges and make this a reality.”

Green MEP and Co-Chair of the European Green Party Reinhard Bütikofer, adds:

The EU should do more to tackle problems young people face today. The young generations are hit particularly hard by the crises and it is therefore important that we invest for example in job creation. Greens propose to do just that through the implementation of a Green New Deal. Traditionally, Greens have been strong advocates for youth rights and youth policy. We proposed the idea of a Youth Guarantee to the Commission and will follow its implementation closely.

We are happy to support the Youth Forum campaign and will play our part in mobilizing young people to vote. And moreover, to empower and enable them to make their voices heard also afterwards.

[ENDS]

Notes to the editor:

About Love Youth Future

Love Youth Future is the European Youth Forum’s campaign to get MEPs to sign up to 11 pledges which outline how the European Parliament can show its love for young people, both now and in the future. More information on Love Youth Future can be found here: www.loveyouthfuture.eu

About the European Youth Forum

The European Youth Forum is the platform of youth organisations in Europe. Independent, democratic, youth-led, it represents 99 National Youth Councils and international youth organisations from across the continent. The Forum works to empower young people to participate actively in society to improve their own lives, by representing and advocating their needs and interests and those of their organisations towards the European Union, the Council of Europe and the United Nations. For more information, visitwww.youthforum.org

Website of the LoveYouthFuture campaign: http://www.loveyouthfuture.eu/