On Thursday, 23 November 2023, the Council of Ministers for Youth of the EU invited the Commission to ensure that the impacts on young people are considered in EU-wide policymaking. As part of this recommendation, ministers urged the Commission to "explore and further analyse the assessment on the impacts of EU policies on young people in the context of regulatory impact assessments. This may include the possible application of an EU youth test" - a revolutionary development that offers to meaningfully empower youth if fully adopted.
The EU Youth Test is a legislative tool to evaluate the impact of new EU proposals on young people and identify any mitigation measures necessary to avoid negative consequences. It is built off three main pillars, including:
- Meaningful engagement with youth stakeholders, including young people from youth-led organisations and experts;
- Impact assessments of draft proposals;
- Mitigation measures to address adversities on different groups of young people, especially groups living in vulnerable situations.
As a long-standing member of the European Youth Forum - the largest youth platform in Europe and the world, which represents 6000 youth grassroots organisations and over 40 million young Europeans - LYMEC not only supports this latest development but is proud of the work that has been done over the last two years to highlight the ever-important issue of youth mainstreaming in the EU.
Following the announcement, LYMEC President Dan-Aria Sucuri remarked: "Having championed this issue throughout our many interventions during the Conference on the Future of Europe and the 2022 European Year of Youth, it is great to see that youth ministers recognise the importance of formalising youth mainstreaming. This move towards youth policy co-creation is a landmark moment that should not be forgotten. LYMEC will continue fighting for this goal until the innovative EU Youth Test becomes a reality for the union".
LYMEC will continue to support efforts such as the EU Youth Test, which seeks to meaningfully integrate young people's voices, wisdom and collective experiences into the decision-making process. That has been at the heart of our mission since 1976 and will continue to be for the coming decades.
LYMEC Applauds Council's backing of an EU Youth Test