The EU is currently shaping its policies for the next decade: the EU budget of almost EUR 2 trillion and upcoming EU Youth Strategy will impact young people through wide-ranging issues (housing, education, culture, health, Erasmus, environment, equality etc.). The EYCA Youth Panel would like to ensure the EU's proposals genuinely target the challenges currently felt by young people. That’s why this project was run till January 2026. Several studies have been published on the needs of young people, and the EYCA Youth Panel ambitioned to complement them with the actual stories from young people aged 13-30.
Over 2030 young people responded to the survey. The full policy report is available at the following link: https://eyca.org/blog/your-voice-our-2030-policy-report.
In short, this report outlines the main findings along 6 themes:
• Jobs, Education, Affordability and Independence
• Economic Instability and Housing
• Loneliness and Community Integration
• Introduction to Adulthood: Pressure, Uncertainty and Mental Health
• Collective Struggles: Civic Rights & Sustainability
• Barriers to Emancipation
The Youth Panel summarised its own top 10 recommendations for anyone shaping young people’s lives:
1. Young people should be empowered with high-quality education on critical and ethical thinking.
2. All young people should have access to current, realistic information about job market and labour rights through mentorship programmes to help transition into employment.
3. All qualifications and degrees, including vocational training, should be recognised, valued and accessible across borders.
4. Prioritise stable, fairly compensated work for young people and ban exploitative, unpaid and unfair work programmes and contracts.
5. Conciliation measures at workplaces should be introduced for young people.
6. Simplify bureaucracy for young people, by improving institutional transparency and communicating complex information in youth-friendly ways.
7. Spaces built by and for young people should be supported through funding youth centres and youth-led initiatives.
8. Meaningful participation of young people in policy processes must be ensured to eliminate tokenism.
9. Price caps and speculation control on housing should be introduced specifically for young people.
10. Simplify access to affordable physical and mental health support, while banning discrimination in professional environments of those accessing mental health support.
