The 2021 Global Report on Ageism of the World Health Organisation (WHO) shows through well-documented data the barriers that youth faces in accessing employment, health services or political participation due to age-related discrimination. It highlights that ageism -age-related discrimination- is detrimental to all age categories of people and that a life-course approach is preferable when designing and implementing public policies, compared to fragmented, sectoral, short-term policies. If major challenges which concern our societies – such as climate change, economic crises and rising inflation, security threats, and green and digital transitions – are to be addressed, a collective and fair approach is required for all those concerned. Importantly, it must also put the young at the core of our societies as they are the main drivers for generational changes.

Nine months into the current European Year of Youth, few results appear. Youth remains one of the hardest hit groups by the Covid pandemic and the fallout of the Russian aggression in Ukraine. Despite recent mild decreases in youth unemployment rates and a few investments through different EU instruments, progress is lagging behind in terms of the real needs of the young people.

CESI Youth Representative Matthäus Fandrejewski said: “I welcome the EU’s responses of solidarity as reaction to the multiple crises we are facing, among them new legislation on effective and adequate minimum wages and initiatives for minimum income schemes, Support to mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency (SURE), ALMA (Aim, Learn, Master, Achieve), the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the Youth Guarantee and Child Guarantee. However, more should be done to further empower the European youth, especially those youngsters coming from the most vulnerable groups of society. This also means a more solid framework for intergenerational solidarity which involves the youth more in collective bargaining, in works councils and in political decision-making.”