Europe’s young citizens have a plan to repair democracy — will the EU listen?

Democracy is the EU’s strongest asset, the reason Europe commands trust at home and credibility abroad, yet assets degrade when they aren’t maintained. Participation is slipping, civic space is tightening, and trust is thin.

A youth-led Our Democracy Report, written by 60 young rapporteurs across the Union, crystallises what many already sense and adds something rarer: a workable to-do list. Its message is blunt. If Europe wants to remain a union of values and not just a single market, it must treat democracy as a first-order policy and not as a slogan appended to other priorities.

Shaping a better future

Young Europeans identify six areas where democratic life is won or lost: participation in governance, justice, digital literacy, equality and non-discrimination, climate transition, and education and economic opportunity. None of these is abstract. They are the points at which a first-time voter decides whether politics is worth the time; where a journalist can publish without harassment; where a Roma teenager is offered a fair start; where citizens can tell fact from manipulation, and where families shoulder the green transition without sliding into precarity. Across these fronts, formal rights often exist on paper while practice is patchy, slow or unequal; although flawed, the rapporteurs have identified room for shaping a better future. 

The repair plan begins in Brussels. Allocate a meaningful share of the EU’s communication budget for youth-targeted civic information and independent fact-checking, with public impact metrics rather than glossy campaigns. Make participation usable by redesigning the European Citizens’ Initiative for mobile, multilingual use, and oblige institutions to publish plain-language consultation summaries under transparency oversight. Lower the justice barrier through investment in legal aid, translation and a genuinely accessible e-Justice Portal so that rights are enforceable for ordinary people, not just those guided by a counsel. Treat digital competence as infrastructure by embedding critical digital and AI literacy in school curricula and adult learning via libraries and civil society. And democratise the climate transition: set minimum standards for inclusive consultations, create climate councils with fixed budgets, and publish a real-time Climate Dashboard that shows who benefits, who pays and where progress stalls.

Member states have their own urgent housekeeping. Opening the public square should not be a culture-war gesture or a mission to polarise the audience: many states should roll back rules that chill protest and independent media, protect victims of SLAPPs, and guarantee NGO access to funding. Police without prejudice by ending discriminatory stop-and-search practices and publishing disaggregated data under independent audit. Teach democracy as a practical skill: rights, procedures, media literacy, and the mechanics of taking part at local, national and EU levels, rather than as a theoretical chapter of history. Align decarbonisation with fairness so that low-income households can afford to comply, proving that climate policy is not something done to people but with them. These are administrative choices deliverable within existing law; they succeed or fail in budgets, timetables and procurement notices more than in speeches.

Democracy is not a vibe

The urgency is not rhetorical. Democracy is not a “vibe”; it is a system that protects people from arbitrary power. Once degraded, democratic safeguards are expensive to rebuild, and in the meantime everything else gets harder: competitiveness, social cohesion, security. Young Europeans live these effects first: slow courts that make rights theoretical; opaque policymaking that rewards insiders when starting a business; climate costs shifted onto those with the thinnest financial cushions; online spaces where manipulation outpaces media literacy. 

This is not a call to invent new institutions, but to use the ones we have with intent. The commission and parliament can elevate democracy from preamble to programme; the council can ensure reforms land in national practice. Cities and regions can move first on participatory budgeting, school-based media literacy and climate consultations. Courts can speed up access with digital portals that are truly accessible, not just nominally online. Public broadcasters can adopt open formats that build trust without sacrificing editorial independence. The price of doing any of this is modest; the cost of not doing it is already visible.

The blueprint exists. Widen participation. Equalise access to justice. Raise digital competence. Enforce equality. Make the green transition fair. None of this is radical; it is good administration that restores confidence because it works.

Europe can normalise democratic erosion as background noise, or it can turn youth-authored recommendations into a work plan with numbers, timelines and public reporting. If the Union and its member states intend to remain both a community of values and a functioning polity, it should choose the latter, and get on with it.

As we look forward, there is room for hope. The Our Democracy Report shows that Europe’s young citizens are ready to do their part. Now the EU must do its share by making democracy central to its policies. A resilient Europe is possible, but only if we take democracy seriously, together.

Every month, hundreds of thousands of people read the journalism and opinion published by EUobserver. With your support, millions of others will as well.

If you're not already, become a supporting member today.