Citizen lobbyists and future leaders: Hear the voices of young Europeans

Última atualização segunda-feira, 26/09/2022

As part of the European Year of Youth, CitizenCentral podcast spoke with several young Europeans about voting, activism and ideas they would like to see become European citizens’ initiatives.

CitizenCentral puts a spotlight on European citizens’ initiatives. In each episode, initiative organisers and supporters tell us why their initiative is important, how they experience raising awareness at EU level, and share tips as they aim to have a greater say in polices that affect our lives.

In this special episode on youth & democracy, we hear from a group of Europeans 26-and-under from 9 different EU countries as they share ideas on voting, EU policymaking, citizen activism and the European Citizens’ Initiative. They also tell us what ideas they would like to see turned into citizens’ initiatives. 

We also hear from Daniela Vancic from Democracy International, and Paco Camas of public opinion research company Ipsos. Daniela argues that the ECI and other participatory tools help young people engage with the issues they care about, and Paco gives us facts and figures on young people’s participation in the EU today.  

Finally, we hear from two organisers of the citizens’ initiative “Ending the aviation fuel tax exemption in Europe” (also called ‘Fairosene’). These two young citizen lobbyists reflect upon their campaign and why it ended on a high note.  

You can listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and SoundCloud.