Listen. Engage. Shape the Future. was the motto of the day on 26 October, when the European Youth Centre Budapest hosted the Parliamentary Assembly’s Special Committee on the New Democratic Pact, in the context of the New Democratic Pact for Europe.

 Together, young people and parliamentarians explored how to rebuild trust, strengthen democratic participation and shape more meaningful ways for young people to take part in decision-making. The programme featured discussions on democratic fatigue and co-decision, an interactive democratic barometer, and a reverse parliament bringing young participants into dialogue with parliamentarians.

 The Special Committee met at the Centre that morning, and its members stayed for the day. Proceedings opened with remarks by Sir Christopher Chope, Chairperson of the Special Committee, Xesc Mainzer, Vice-Chair of the Advisory Council on Youth, and Bálint Molnár, Executive Director of the European Youth Centre Budapest. Participants then took part in the first democratic barometer, repeated at the close of the day to measure what the discussion had shifted.

 Democratic fatigue

The first panel, Understanding democratic fatigue: rebuilding trust and democratic participation, was moderated by Tobias Flessenkemper, Head of the Council of Europe’s Youth Department, with Nina Skočak, journalist, digital creator and founder of a Gen Z media platform, youth activist Rares Voicu, and Áron Csere. Speakers returned repeatedly to a gap that research across member states also describes: not an absence of political interest among young people, but a shortage of places where that interest changes anything.

 The reverse parliament

The centrepiece of the day inverted the usual order. In a reverse parliament moderated by Despina Chatzivassiliou, Secretary General of the Parliamentary Assembly, young participants put their questions to parliamentarians, who answered from the floor: Damien Cottier (Switzerland), First Vice-Chair of the Special Committee, Victoria Tiblom (Sweden), Sona Ghazaryan (Armenia), Youth Rapporteur of the Committee on Rules, Ethics and Immunities, and Max Lucks (Germany), Youth Rapporteur of the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy.

Petra Bayr, President of the Parliamentary Assembly, joined the event at the Centre during the day. George Papandreou, member of the Special Committee, also took part.

 Participation and co-decision

The final session, Reinventing democratic participation and co-decision, moderated by Bálint Molnár, turned from diagnosis to mechanism. Louise Barton, Director at the Parliamentary Assembly, Mia Uremović of the Advisory Council on Youth and the Cooperation and Development Network Eastern Europe, and Réka Gaján, Vice-President of the National Youth Council of Hungary, were asked what would actually have to change — in rules and procedures, not in intentions — for young people to share decisions rather than be heard before decisions are taken.

The European Youth Centre Budapest and the Youth Department were grateful to host and co-organise this event, contributing our decades-long experience of working with and for young people and giving them an equal seat at the table in our Joint Council on Youth, where youth organisations and government representatives agree the sector’s programme and priorities, and the grants of the European Youth Foundation, together and with equal votes.

 “What they lack is a seat at the table”

The Budapest event preceded a parliamentary conference, Educate. Engage. Empower. Youth Shaping Democracy, held at the Hungarian National Assembly on 27 October and organised by the Parliamentary Assembly together with the Hungarian National Assembly.

Speaking there, President Bayr said: “Young people in Europe are not apathetic. Far from it. They march for stopping the climate crisis and for better schools. They organise online. They volunteer. They debate — fiercely. What they lack is not passion. What they lack is a seat at the table.”

Deputy Secretary General Tanja Gonggrijp told the conference that the New Democratic Pact “is an open process, with the voices of young people at its heart” and invited everyone to take part in the Organisation’s citizens’ consultation.

 Have your say — until 12 November

The Pact’s online citizens’ consultation is open to everyone in all 46 member states until 12 November. It asks what needs to change for democracy to work better, and the responses will feed into a consultation report due in January 2027. 

 Understand the approach: Your voice for democracy

The European Youth Centre Budapest has been an establishment of the Council of Europe since 1995 and is one of two residential youth centres the Organisation runs.