Youth in focus: In favour of a strong and binding 3rd EU Youth Strategy

With the expiry of the current strategy at the end of 2027, the development of a successor strategy is now pending. The DBJR therefore believes that now is the right time to formulate requirements for a 3rd EU Youth Strategy so that the course is set early on and youth policy remains firmly anchored at EU level in the next funding and strategy phase. The Bundesjugendring is in favour of adapting the duration of the future strategy to the Erasmus+ programme generation as the central implementation instrument of the EU Youth Strategy.

The EU Youth Strategy is the central strategic umbrella of European youth policy. It aims to strengthen youth participation, support social and societal engagement and help ensure that young people have the resources to participate in society and democracy. At the same time, it recognises the role of youth associations and youth rings as important vehicles for young people's democratic self-organisation.

With its position paper, the German Federal Youth Council contributes its experience from many years of work with the EU Youth Strategy, in particular as a project sponsor of the EU Youth Dialogue in Germany, based on the experience of its member organisations and the assessments of current and former EU youth representatives.

From the DBJR's perspective, a 3rd EU Youth Strategy must fulfil the following conditions in particular:

1. the EU Youth Strategy secures youth policy in the EU as an independent policy field

Youth is an independent phase of life with its own interests, perspectives and expectations of politics. This is why a strong and independent youth policy with clear responsibilities, professional expertise and sufficient resources is also needed at European level.

Youth policy must not be watered down as a mere cross-cutting issue or subordinated to other political fields of action. Instead, the 3rd EU Youth Strategy must ensure that young people and their concerns remain visible in the European institutions and have reliable contact and participation structures.

2. the EU Youth Goals are strengthened as the strategic foundation of European youth policy

In the view of the DBJR, the EU Youth Goals are the central core of European youth policy. They summarise the demands that young people have formulated for European policy in a Europe-wide participation process.

The DBJR therefore calls for the EU Youth Goals to be given a much stronger role in the 3rd EU Youth Strategy. They should not only be included as an appendix, but should be at the centre of the strategy. At the same time, they must be regularly updated, underpinned with practical sub-goals and supplemented by measurable indicators.

It is also important that new and pressing issues are taken on board. From the DBJR's perspective, this applies in particular to security and peace, digitalisation and artificial intelligence, mental health, affordable housing, resilience and dealing with crises.

3. the further development of the EU Youth Goals takes place in a broad and high-quality participation process

The EU Youth Goals have their legitimacy precisely because they were developed in a broad European participation process. This must be built upon.

The DBJR is therefore clearly against a purely selective revision in a small circle. Instead, a broad-based European consultation process is once again needed in which young people from all Member States are involved - even beyond the EU Youth Conferences.

The further development of the EU youth goals must be based on the quality standards for child and youth participation and be anchored in the EU youth dialogue. This is the only way to ensure that the diversity of young people's perspectives is genuinely reflected and that there is broad democratic feedback.

4. the EU Youth Dialogue is structurally and qualitatively strengthened as a central participation instrument

The EU Youth Dialogue is the largest participation process for young people in the European Union and a central pillar of the EU Youth Strategy. In the DBJR's view, it must also be continued in the 3rd EU Youth Strategy.

At the same time, practical experience shows that the EU Youth Dialogue has not yet fully exploited its potential. It therefore needs more binding structures, clearer responsibilities and stronger institutional anchoring. Consultations, conferences and feedback processes must be better coordinated, made more transparent and permanently supported.

In the DBJR's view, this includes binding quality criteria for EU youth conferences, better preparation of delegates, clear role descriptions for EU youth representatives and reliable responsibilities within the European institutions.

5. youth participation at EU level needs binding quality standards and effective feedback

Good participation does not end with the formulation of demands. It needs comprehensible procedures, transparency and feedback on what happens to the perspectives contributed.

The DBJR therefore calls for the EU's youth participation instruments to be more closely aligned with the quality standards for child and youth participation. Young people need to know how their contributions are incorporated into political processes, which demands are taken up and where they are not implemented.

A structured and permanent follow-up mechanism is central to this. It would make the contributions of young people visible, recognise their work and significantly increase the political effectiveness of the EU Youth Dialogue.

6. the results of the EU Youth Dialogue must be taken up more bindingly in the European institutions

Youth mainstreaming can only work if the results of the EU Youth Dialogue are systematically fed into relevant political processes. So far, this has not happened sufficiently.

According to the DBJR, this is particularly evident in the European Parliament. To date, there has been a lack of institutionalised handling of the results of the EU Youth Dialogue. The DBJR therefore calls for the results of the EU Youth Conferences to be regularly discussed in the CULT Committee of the European Parliament and for other specialised committees to systematically take them up.

At the same time, Members of the European Parliament and representatives of other EU institutions should participate more in the EU Youth Conferences and engage in direct dialogue with young people.

7. the instruments of European youth policy must be better harmonised

Numerous new instruments have emerged in European youth policy in recent years. In addition to tried-and-tested formats such as the EU Youth Dialogue and Erasmus+, further participation instruments have been added, particularly in the wake of the European Year of Youth.

These developments offer opportunities, but also lead to new overlaps. The DBJR is therefore calling for the instruments of European youth policy to be more systematically interlinked in the 3rd EU Youth Strategy.

The EU Youth Strategy, the EU Youth Dialogue, Erasmus+ and other participation formats must not run side by side. They must be interlinked in such a way that their contributions complement each other, synergies are created and duplicate structures are avoided.

8. participation of young people in Europe must be organised permanently, visibly and at eye level

In order to strengthen youth participation in Europe in the long term, the DBJR believes that structures are needed that bring together political responsibility and the participation of young people in a binding manner. The co-management in the youth sector of the Council of Europe offers an important model for this.

The DBJR is therefore in favour of anchoring this principle more firmly at EU level. Youth participation must not remain selective or symbolic, but must be structurally secured, backed up with resources and geared towards long-term effectiveness.