Brussels, European Policy Centre (EPC). It happens too rarely that young people who are active in local youth groups and international encounters discuss their demands with representatives of the European Commission, the European Parliament and large umbrella organisations. But this now happened: At the roundtable “Young Voices for Youth Work” young people from nine European countries presented the draft of a policy paper with recommendations for European youth policy. And they did so with great urgency – because the structures that are important to them are in danger.
The timing for this initiative was chosen deliberately. In Brussels, preparations for the next Erasmus+ programme generation and negotiations on the EU’s future multi-annual financial framework are currently underway. In this strategically important phase, those who experience the effects of European and national youth policy in practice are now speaking up: Active young people from the Generation Europe – The Academy network.
When the Foundation Crumbles: Why Young People Are Getting Involved
The young authors from Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Ukraine are not lobbyists from the Brussels bubble. They are active at the grassroots level. They experience first-hand how youth centres have to fight for every euro, how committed youth workers drop out due to burnout, and how bureaucratic hurdles prevent their friends from taking part in international projects.
These practical experiences were the starting point for a working process lasting several months: The young people no longer wanted to watch the places of youth work come under further pressure – spaces where they feel empowered and do not only learn about democracy, but live it. For them, youth work is not just a dry run for the future, but a central place for social participation in the here and now.
Accompanied by a team of professionals for participatory youth work at IBB e.V., the international group analysed the obstacles to their engagement. They conducted interviews, did research and evaluated surveys. The result is the draft of their paper “Young Voices for Youth Work”. The document makes it unmistakably clear: European youth work is suffering from systemic problems that threaten its existence, and therefore also its role as a cornerstone of democracy.
Precarious Funding Endangers Democracy Support
A central topic of the discussion in Brussels was the permanent uncertainty in which many youth work organisations have to operate. The young people reported vividly about the consequences when organisations have to work almost exclusively with short-term, project-related funds. They also pointed out that European programmes take too little responsibility for the long-term security of the organisations that are supposed to develop and implement European projects in the first place.
The message from the young experts was clear: It is not enough to praise the importance of youth for democracy in nice speeches if the organisations doing this work do not know how to pay their running costs next year. Small grassroots initiatives in particular are in danger of drowning in bureaucracy. The young people therefore demanded a system change in the upcoming EU funding programmes: Away from short-term project hunting, towards sustainable structural funding and operating grants as a reliable component of programmes like Erasmus+. Only in this way can the loss of experienced professionals be stopped, new talent kept in the field and planning security be created.
28 Concrete Answers to the Crisis
In their policy paper, the young people have developed 28 concrete recommendations to address the identified problems. In addition to their proposals for more sustainable funding, they discussed these points at the roundtable, among others:
- Recognition of youth work as a profession: Youth work is not just volunteering, but professional educational work. The recognition of this field of work varies greatly across Europe, and uniform good framework conditions are often lacking. The authors demand clear professional standards and career paths to counteract the massive shortage of skilled workers.
- Real inclusion instead of empty words: Access to international projects is often still exclusive. The young people call for the removal of financial and bureaucratic hurdles, EU-wide monitoring and concrete measures so that more young people from rural areas and with disadvantaged backgrounds can participate – and not just those who are already being reached.
- Mental health: In a time of multiple crises, the psychological burden on young people has increased enormously. The Young people are calling for youth work to be massively strengthened as a protected space for mental well-being and for professionals to be trained accordingly.
Sneak Preview: The Demands in Detail
The complete policy paper with all analyses are to be published in January 2026. In order to bring the content into the debate now, the young people have summarised their core demands in an overview. Anyone who wants to understand what they believe needs to change in European youth work can find the 28 key points in the following presentation:
Together for Strong Structures
The roundtable was organised by IBB e.V. in cooperation with the European Policy Centre (EPC), supported by the Alliance of Youth Workers Associations (AYWA) and Europe Goes Local, the European cooperation platform for quality development in local youth work. This broad alliance underlines that the concerns of the young people are shared and supported by important actors in the field.
What’s Next?
The young people are using the feedback from the stakeholders present – including representatives of the European Youth Forum, Youth For Understanding and European institutions – to finalise their paper. After its official publication in the new year, the work will continue: The demands are to be fed into political debates at national and European level, in order to increase the chances of structural improvements for the field of youth work. IBB e.V. and the young authors invite all interested parties from politics, administration, academia and other parts of civil society to support this process! If you have ideas where the results can be presented, or who would like to help with dissemination, you are welcome to contact generationeurope@ibb-d.de.
