Youth in International Relations: Challenges and Opportunities
On November 14th, a Western Balkans Conference was held, where representatives of institutions, youth councils, experts and members of the audience shared their knowledge perspectives on youth engagement and participation in the region.
The event was co-organised by National Youth Forum and Friedrich Ebert Foundation (Bulgaria). The National Youth Forum (NYF) is the largest youth platform in Bulgaria, bringing together over 30 youth organizations from across the country. For 15 years, it has been protecting and representing the voice of young people, actively partnering with national and European institutions in the development of youth policies. Through structured dialogue with institutions and expert support, the NYF supports youth participation at school, local, national and European level. The Friedrich Ebert Foundation was established in Germany and now has branches in various countries. It primarily aims to promote democracy and political education.
The conference was opened first by Atanas Radev, President of the NYF and Jacques Paparo, Director of FES who expressed his belief in how today’s challenges cannot be solved without the energy, effort and ideas of the young people. The Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports Petar Mladenov remarked that having both institutions and organisations on one table is already an example of how we should approach the topic of youth involvement. He stated that “This is not simply a goal, it’s a priority for us as an institution. Our present issues cannot be solved without the participation of young people and their voice. You are the torch barriers for the present and future agenda.” He also reaffirmed Bulgaria’s commitment to hosting a Balkan Youth Centre (as the third after the ones in Brussels and Budapest). Klajdi Priska from the Regional Youth Cooperation Office was also called on stage, where he reaffirmed how bringing together national institutions, organisations, active people and regional policy mechanisms is a “remarkable” feat on behalf of NYF and FES. Finally, Rareș Voicu, President of the YFJ encouraged reflection with his statement “For us is not a question of whether we are going to continue on (with our commitment), because we will: the question is how do we do it together.”
In the first panel of the day, Lora Lyubenova (Phd) and Liliya Elenkova (PhD) presented their report “the State of Youth Councils”, spanning all of the European nations and aiming to strengthen YC’s independence and participation in decision-making processes. The experts underscored the importance of legal recognition in legitimating youth councils, but warned against political interference and suggested setting up protection mechanisms to counter it. Their work also focused on the issue of financial (in)dependency, as youth councils often rely on public project funding, which can be used as a form of pressure for compliance: securing financial diversification and autonomy is a top priority. Another challenge identified in the report is about internal governance: Ms Lyubenova and Ms Elenkova encouraged youth councils to create rotational leadership positions that are as inclusive as possible and to be transparent about their practices, involving European institutions and ethics committees. In conclusion, it is important to remember that independence is key for youth participation and it is also an indicator of a healthy democracy: the next step forward is to institutionalize partnerships with NYCs in governance.
In the second part of the panel, representatives from the National Youth Councils of the Western Balkans shared their insights on the role of NYCs in foreign policy. Maša Vračar, the spokesperson from Serbia, reported on how young people there do not trust governmental institutions, especially in relation to the turbulent student protests that happened all over the country. She further explained how this divide is also represented by the issue of a parallel youth report on behalf of the NYC, based on alternative data resources than the ones used by the state. Vladimir Perazic, Secretary General of NYC Montenegro focused instead on more positive news about their young organization: he revealed that they are working on adopting, by the end of the year, the first youth law of the country, while also presenting their candidature for Podgorica as European Youth Capital. As for Bosnia-Herzegovina, a representative from each division participated in the conference: they described how cooperation and advocacy in a country with such a complex structure can be quite tricky, as neither decision-makers or young people are sure who to address when discussing or introducing policies. Moreover, they expanded on it is a difficult time for youth work as progress for rights is registering negative trends. Ertë Rashiti, from Kosovo, told the audience how, initially, her organization was founded to be more of a platform, not an official National Youth Council, but as years passed it has been working to legally and practically represent young people’s voices on the national and international level, though they are still in the path of learning the best way to do that. Lastly, Yoan Stoyanov, wrapped up the panel on behalf of NYF Bulgaria. He mentioned the importance of the project for the Independence of National Youth Councils (of which the report previously presented is an essential part). During its implementation, in fact, as youths protested against corrupted institutions and the anti-European direction taken by their respective societies, we witnessed instances of political interference in the working of NYCs, like budget cuts that limited and threatened their capacities. To conclude, Yoan enhanced how, even if we are registering negative trends in the youth field, we need to recognise the positive progress as well and continue advocating for a brighter future.
During the second panel, Ema Smolo, Regional Communications Coordinator for Friedrich Ebert Foundation Regional Dialogue in Southeast Europe presented the results of the organization’s Youth Study. The findings show that there is an increment within interest in politics among young people, though they are less trusting of institutions and governance: one of the issues at the basis of this phenomenon is corruption, which directly affects the future of youths and their willingness to invest in respective home countries. Thus, young people do have a strong desire to emigrate to find better job prospects, but at the same time, the EU is becoming less and less attractive to them, because of slow access processes. In this complex landscape, we can also see a slight decrease in support of democracy: data prove that some, especially men, prefer a strong leader that wields a lot of power to a more elaborate democratic system. Not only that, but young people are also becoming increasingly inclined to compromise on some liberal rights, if that guarantees them greater financial stability. The study thus offers some key points to reflect on: youths want to be involved in political processes, but they must come with strategies catered to answer their most pressing needs.
In the last panel, experts shared their views on necessities and opportunities within a regional youth dialogue in the Balkans. Peter Matjašič, former President of the European Youth Forum recounted his experience in youth policy coming from a small village up to his role in the biggest youth platform in the world, at a time when not many Southeastern European countries had youth councils: he recalled the collective efforts made so that NYCs could grow in the region. Rareș Voicu, current President of the EYF focused more on his present, on how, when representing a very large group, things are bigger than you, you lack private time and on how we need to persevere because the work that is currently being done is fueling a slow but steady process of improvement. Yoan Stoyanov, from NYF Bulgaria, reaffirmed the organization’s commitment to the common goal for the councils: empower youths by going to the institutions to push for policies, travelling the country and facing young people with decision-makers. He also shared the experience with the National Youth Academy, created to train young people to participate and be part of organizations, strengthen their network, and be better representatives. On this note, Klajdi Priska from the Regional Youth Cooperation Office and Youth Representative of Albania, talked about his role as spokesperson for the interests of both Albanian and Western Balkan youths, reminding us of how important preparation is for representatives: in occasions where that was not the case advocacy and other essential tasks were carried out poorly. On the positive side, he expanded on the significant achievements made towards the integration of Western Balkans countries in recent years.
In the last part of the conference, three working groups were formed in order to comment on the highlights of the talks and provide suggestions. These discussions confirmed that political and financial instability are challenges that youths have to face all over in the Western Balkans. Other widespread issues are misinformation and lack of information, stemming from social media, but also as deliberate acts from governments and politicians. This paints a rather negative landscape for young people, who end up with a lack of interest or trust in democracy, politics and themselves as social actors. As a consequence, everyone stays in their own bubble and does not participate in collective life. Together, the participants tried to find actionable solutions to these problems, starting from schools: they expressed a need for mandatory civic education, but they also convened that they want to learn about such topics through acts of collaboration, such as volunteering. On this note, it was proposed that initiatives like student councils, neighbourhood meetings and youth-oriented programmes be supported and promoted, as such forms of cooperation can bring about positive change and strengthen engagement. Lastly, the groups suggested that an event targeted at presenting youth-lead initiatives to stake-holders take place once a year, in order to communicate directly with the decision makers and to put ideas into practice.
