The Council of Europe is holding a week of PACE calls on states to consider lowering voting age to 16
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has called on member states to investigate the possibility of lowering the voing age to 16 for all kinds of elections.
The great majority of the Council of Europe’s 47 member states currently have 18 as the minimum voting age – though in 2007 Austria became the first to lower the age to 16 for all municipal, state and national elections, the Assembly pointed out. Some German länder, one Swiss canton and three British Crown Dependencies also permit voting at 16.
“By taking this step, young people would feel more included, and are more likely to be engaged in the political process as they grow older,” said the author of the report Miloš Aligrudić (Serbia, EPP/CD). “This expands democracy, and makes politics in general more representative.”
A political organisation set up in 1949, the Council of Europe works to promote democracy and human rights continent-wide. It also develops common responses to social, cultural and legal challenges in its 47 member states.
2007 - Council of Europe information Office in Georgia
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The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has called on member states to investigate the possibility of lowering the voing age to 16 for all kinds of elections.
