In 2011, the European Youth Forum conducted a study on why young people didn’t vote in the 2009 and 2004 European Parliament elections. The findings were sobering and identified a clear gap in providing election information to young people.
This led the European Youth Forum, with two other main partners, the International Debate Education Association and Votewatch Europe to create the League of Young Voters in Europe.
The League of Young Voters in Europe is a non-partisan initiative that seeks to inform young people about the European Parliament elections and the issues discussed during the election campaign.
It encourages young people to voice their concerns, and alert political parties and candidates to address these during the election campaign discourse. Overall, the League is a movement and an election platform designed by young people, for young people.
– To create a platform for young people, of all backgrounds and from across the EU, as a space for them to be involved in decision-making processes at European level;
– The mobilisation of youth and all youth-related campaigns for the European elections 2014;
– To inform young people about what is at stake for them at (European) elections by providing them with non-partisan information;
– To promote the inclusion of youth issues and youth-friendly information in the national and European election campaigns;
– To facilitate a dialogue between young people and political parties/candidates;
– Indirect objectives of this project include increasing youth participation in the 2014 European Parliament elections in terms of the numbers, to strengthen the independent organisation that is dedicated to working on youth participation in elections in Europe. The first phase of the project is to focus on the European elections 2014, but the LYV will then look at continuing its activities and mobilisation campaign at different levels of elections, and to create a sustainable initiative and format for electoral platforms for young people to be used in all elections and in other regions of the world.
-Overseeing the development of national/local branches of the LYV in each EU member state and building their capacity to reach out to as many young people as possible at national and local levels;
-Mobilising youth-run campaigns at all levels that are related to the European elections 2014;
-Liaising with political parties to ensure that they take youth into consideration in their campaigns;
-Running the website as well as all other social networking platforms;
-Through the LYV website, be constantly updated on young people’s concerns and be the middle ground between young people and political parties;
-Writing of and compiling information of European elections in a non partisan and easy to understand way on both technical information and content;
-Organise debates and activities involving young people and politicians, opening up a dialogue;
-Managing the content of discussions in the framework of the League’s participation at the European Youth Event 2014;
-Production of academic material on the causes of youth absenteeism and the question of the development of European democracy;
-Be a platform of channelling young people’s voices to politicians and keep in close contact with political parties to ensure the inclusion of youth issues/ youth friendly information within political party manifestos, as well as throughout the electoral campaigns;
-Organise activities with the League’s network of partners in order to inform young people and raise awareness about issues that interest young people.
– The only pan-European electoral platform for young people specialised on the European Parliament elections.
– A strong source of knowledge and facts about youth absenteeism in elections, the causes and solutions.
