Youth in the EU: Promoting Participation From Below
The great political participation of youth offered European lawmakers a promising starting point to boost participation in future elections, leveraging younger populations to address low voter turnout.
This strategy has been reflected by several legislations tabled by MEPs to lower the voting age to 16 years old in European Elections. Notably, in 2022, the Parliament initiated a proposal to replace the current European Electoral Act of 1976 with direct universal suffrage elections for members of the European Parliament and a harmonized voting age set at 16 to ensure equality and avoid discrimination. To date, the proposal is still under consideration by the Council and unlikely to be unanimously approved by the Council and member states before the 2024 European elections. Similarly, in April 2024, forty-five members of Estonia's unicameral parliamentary coalition presented a legislative proposal to lower the minimum age for voting in European Parliament elections from 18 to 16 and for running as a candidate from 21 to 18.
The minimum voting age in the European Union is not fixed. Article 8 of the European Electoral Law, as revised by Council Decision 2002/772, allows each Member State to set its own voting age through national legislation. The minimum age for voting in European elections was set at 16 in Austria in 2007, in Malta in 2018, in Belgium in 2022 and in Germany in 2023, and at 17 in Greece in 2016. In all other Member States, the minimum voting age is 18 years.
Thus, the proposed bills have sought to amend the European Parliament Election Act to address the discrepancies in voting legislation among Member States and increase the participation of young people in European politics. As voting for members of Parliament influences European-level decision-making affecting their lives, it would motivate young people to participate more actively as citizens of the European Union. European lawmakers predict that lowering the voting age would lead to increased participation in the long term, with first-time 16-year-old voters reshaping the life cycle of political engagement. Indeed, a study of election participation in Austria found that 16- and 17-year-old voters were likelier to vote than older first-time voters. Additionally, these 16- and 17-year-old voters tend to view politics more optimistically and have more trust in government, which contributes to higher turnout. This early commitment would continue throughout the European elections, thus increasing electoral participation in the Union.
According to the April 2024 bill's explanatory memorandum, lowering the voting age to 16 for municipal elections in Estonia was welcomed by young people, increasing the active participation of the electorate. It stresses that there is no compelling reason to maintain the voting age in the European Parliament higher than that in local elections, as individuals aged 16 are also interested in getting involved in societal life and have received sufficient education to understand political issues.
Moreover, as Europe's population ages, political participation and decision-making power are shifting into the hands of an older electorate. As a result, as an older voting base gains a greater say in decisions affecting the lives of young people, reducing the voting age helps balance the demographic makeup of the electorate. If the voting age in European elections were lowered to 16 in all Member States, the electorate would increase from 366 million to 375 million citizens. This 2.5% increase would have a notable influence on European politics, fostering demographic diversity within the electorate. In the long term, this could significantly change European election turnout, fostering voting participation engagement from an early age.
EU Elections: The Bottom-Up Approach
Given the increased youth-turnout, it is crucial that young people are given the opportunity to be informed and equipped with the tools and knowledge necessary to address the issues of tomorrow’s world.
Member states have intensified their efforts to promote greater youth voting engagement in anticipation of the European elections in 2024. In order to attract as many citizens to the ballot box as possible, the Parliament has established several significant initiatives. The together.eu platform, for instance, allows young people to complete e-learning modules, share ideas, and encourage debates and events. The European Commission has also been offering tens of thousands of travel passes to young citizens under the DiscoverEU program so they can travel around Europe by train for free over the summer. The European Parliament launched DiscoverEU in June 2018 as an experimental project and has since been repeated over the years, owing to its popularity. Since the program's inception, more than 1 million young people have applied for the 284,000 available travel passes. According to a post-travel poll, 72% of candidates said this was their first time traveling by train outside their home country. Moreover, more than two-thirds declared they would only have been able to finance their travel with DiscoverEU's sponsorship.
In addition to these more cultural related initiatives, the EU has created numerous platforms and conferences directed to youth, to increase their democratic participation in decision-making and foster their awareness of pressing topics, from climate change to digital innovation. The European Youth Parliament (EYP) and the Youth Dialogue on Internet Governance (YouthDig) are cases in point. Founded in 1987, the EYP it is a youth-led driven programme, “run by young people for young people”, whose aim is to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas on European political and social issues, promote intercultural dialogue, foster education through ad hoc activities, and produce a connected network of young leaders in Europe. The platform involves around 25,000 youth a year and counts approximately 6,000 active members across different EU countries. On a similar line but more thematically specific, the YouthDig platform is is a yearly pre-event to the European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG) aimed to foster active participation of young people (ages 18–30) and exchange with experts on topics related to the Internet governance, from privacy and human rights to cybercrime and environmental technologies. The annual platform ends with the delivery of Youth Messages, that are presented at EuroDIG and the global Internet Governance Forum that is convened by the United Nations with the aim of contributing to global, regional, and national debates on Internet Governance.
These initiatives are critical to understanding the functioning of the EU's broader strategy to drive integration through a "bottom-up" approach by promoting a sense of European identity and unity among young people. They help the EU's overarching goals of fostering a cohesive and inclusive European community, together with the creation of a green and sustainable society, by facilitating mobility, advocacy, intercultural and intergenerational contact. European leaders see bottom-up practices prioritizing EU citizens as the most effective way to generate trust in and support for the European Union. This approach focuses on European youth, who represent the future of the Union and stimulate support for membership in the Union. For instance, 73% of people aged 18 to 29 see the EU favorably, compared to a median of 58% among those aged 50 and over.
The bottom-up approach is a long-term strategy. It aims to provide youth with civic and political education through schools across the European Union to instill in young people an awareness of democracy's value and a sense of belonging. A recent EPRS briefing highlights how civic education programs assist in teaching ideals such as civil liberties and tolerance, which have become education policy priorities at the EU level. As these young citizens grow to become the support basis for European society, it strengthens the EU's resilience in the long run, passing on the attachment to democratic institutions to new generations. This creates a positive feedback loop as an educated electorate brings numerous benefits to civil society and ensures it maintains vitality and relevance.