European youth : opening up decision-making process to young people, follow-up to the White Paper

The European Parliament adopted a resolution based on the own-initiative report drafted by Lissy GRONER (PES, Germany) on the Commission's communication on European Youth. (Please see the document dated 19/02/04). Parliament called on the Member States, using the bottom-up principle, to identify opportunities for young people to participate in decision-making at local, regional and national level, and to find effective ways for young people's views to be heard and to make the results of this participation visible to the general public and to young people themselves. There should be particular attention to be paid to the Commission's information networks and a wider range of direct training and information events to be made available to providers of political education for young people. In planning and implementing information policy in the context of political and social life at European, national and local level, young people must be seen as a specific target group, which is particularly important with regard to the planned information campaign in 2004 on enlargement and the European elections. Parliament called for inclusive language to be used in all publications produced for campaigns. The future youth programme should promote the political and social participation of young people in a European context. The programme should consequently allow young people room for manoeuvre if and to the extent that they wish to decide themselves the political and social issues in relation to which they wish to develop joint projects. Youth organisations and the organisations carrying out projects should therefore be consulted regularly with regard to the definition of the programme's objectives and priorities. The Commission is asked to ascertain whether European Youth Week can be made into a permanent fixture and a durable feature of European youth policy. Parliament called for plans to include an introductory 'youth parliament' day, giving young people an opportunity actively to experience democracy at work in the European Parliament. Finally, the Commission and the Member States were asked to encourage young people to vote in the European elections in 2004.�