Future Manifesto presented to Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier — read “Young Ideas for the Future of Europe”!
In the past years Europe and the European Union (EU) have had to withstand many challenges. These range from crisis‘ in the Eurozone- the effects of which we still feel today‑, in the closest proximity of the European Union and concerning migration- and asylum politics, to global shifts in the liberal world order, to the increasing return to the nation state that found its most extreme expression in Britain’s decision to leave the European Union. In these times, two things are particularly important for the future of Europe: To look forward and to give young Europeans a voice.
A few weeks before the 2019 European Parliament elections, the Institut für Europäische Politik (IEP) issued “Young Ideas for the Future of Europe.” This manifesto for the future is the result of a several month long Youth involvement project #EngagEU, which was overseen by the IEP in Berlin in cooperation with the Centre international de formation européenne in Nice, WiseEuropa in Warsaw and the Trans European Policy Studies Association in Brussels. Thanks to funding by the European Commission under the “Europe for Citizens” programme over 500 citizens from more than 23 member states of the European Union and countries of the Western Balkans have been able to reach a total of four #YoungCitizens’FutureLabs to share common ideas and demands for the future of Europe, materialising in one workshop and written down in a manifesto for the future.
As part of the #1stYoungCitizens‘Convention in April 2019 in Brussels, the manifesto was presented to Federal President Frank Walter Steinmeier by young rapporteurs of the project in order to, before the elections, jointly call upon the young voters to cast their votes. In September 2019 “Young Ideas for the Future of Europe” will be discussed with the newly elected members of the European Parliament during the #2ndYoungCitizens’Convention in Brussels.
The manifesto is available in German, English, French as well as Polish.