Youth participation has already been a central topic on the way to the 2019 European elections and has only gained more attention ever since. But the better involvement of young people has resulted in some unexpected developments during the 2024 European elections, as the far-right reached an unprecedented height, partly due to the youth. However light the Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport portfolio seems to be, it absolutely should not be considered as such. Young people are an integral part of how the future will look like, and if the European Union – and moderate parties – do not level up their game, it might look ugly. But what are the existing and untapped potentials concerning the European youth?
A sore lesson
The European Union is full of opportunities for the youth. The Erasmus+ was established in 1987 as a student exchange programme to allow young people to study abroad. Within the frame of the programme, SALTO-YOUTH, a network of seven Resource Centres focusing on a specific topic or region was set up in 2000 to provide learning resources and organise trainings for the youth. Since 2004, the European Union has a Youth Portal as well which basically gathers the EU level information that young people might need. In addition, the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs facilitate new entrepreneurs to gain the skills necessary to run a small business with the help of an experienced entrepreneur in another country since 2009.
To put further emphasis on the youth, the European Union chose them as the theme of its yearly awareness campaign in 2022. The European Year of Youth wanted to encourage young people to make their voice heard and express their views, let it be through social media or debates, among others. This must have had some positive effects, as a Eurobarometer survey showed that young people’s engagement has increased since 2022. The same survey made the European Commission believe that young people ‘give us cause for optimism’ as it seemed to confirm their commitment to EU values and showed that 64% of them intended to vote on the European elections.
The youth really got a bigger role during the 2024 elections as Belgium and Germany followed the example of Austria and Malta, and lowered the voting age to 16. The main concerns of Gen Z were even voiced, for example in Politico, when they complained about feeling left behind, not taken seriously, and not being included in issues that affect them. Sadly, a great part of young voters ended up fuelling the far-right, as political parties like AfD in Germany, Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, Chega in Portugal, and Rassemblement national in France have taken advantage of these concerns. Do we need any more explanation why this portfolio matters?
A young candidate
On the 17thof September 2024, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen decided to divide the former Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth portfolio in two and proposed a Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport to deal with one half. Maltese Glenn Micallef was born in 1989 and started his career as a Research Analyst focusing on the Competitiveness Council configuration in the Ministry for EU Affairs of Malta. He worked his way up to be Head of the Unit responsible for external relations and preparations for the Maltese Presidency of the Council of the European Union, then went on to become Director General of the EU Coordination Department in 2017. He held onto that position for three years. He has been Head of Secretariat of the Prime Minister of Malta, Advisor on EU Affairs and European Council Sherpa since 2020, and President of St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation since 2021.
The nomination of the youngest candidate among the new Commissioners-designate came as a surprise and the decision was criticized by former and current Maltese ministers alike. The concern is that Malta would become more irrelevant due to Micallef’s inexperience as the portfolio does not look significant at first glance. But if Micallef manages to pass the hearing of the European Parliament – about which there are some doubts –, he really should take it seriously.
A pivotal generation
Ursula von der Leyen’s mission letter to Glenn Micallef separates the tasks related to Youth and Intergenerational Fairness from those related to Culture and Sport. Working under the guidance of the Executive Vice-President for People, Skills and Preparedness, in the latter theme, Micallef is expected to develop a new Culture Compass and improve the working conditions of artists and cultural professionals. He will have to develop an AI strategy for cultural and creative industries and prepare a new strategy to enhance the European Sport Model, while being responsible for strengthening the European sport diplomacy too. In the former theme, Micallef is expected to prepare a Strategy on Intergenerational Fairness and set up the President’s Youth Advisory Board. Of course, he will be tasked with the coordination of the Youth Policy Dialogues, the follow up on the European Year of Youth and the implementation of the youth check as well.
Seeing the results of the 2024 European elections, Micallef will surely have some work to do. To be fair, it is not only the responsibility of the European Commission though to provide adequate information and appeal to the youth, but also of the moderate parties. Like it or not, if far-right parties are better at reaching young people through social media, moderate parties must fight fire with fire. They should engage more on social media, such as Volt MEPs on Instagram, who have fresh, informative, but many times also funny content. Another huge problem is that far-right parties tend to use disinformation professionally, for example linking migration to issues like housing, through which they actually manage to manipulate less educated young people. So, the task is given – even if it is not that simple – for Glenn Micallef, the European Commission, and the moderate parties of Member States alike: clear the narrative, reach and include the youth, and claim back the European Union.