Platform for 2011 parliamentary elections

Estonian National Youth Council's platform for the 2011 Riigikogu elections

The Estonian Youth Work Strategy defines "youth policy" so: a coordinated and purposeful activity in different spheres of life that proceeds from the actual needs and challenges of young people. These are the main activity areas/spheres of youth policy where decisions concerning youth and young people's lives are made: youth work, education, employment, health, culture, social policy, environment, national defence, family policy, etc.

To ensure improved consideration of youth needs in policy-shaping and greater and more efficient mutual coordination of decisions made in different spheres of life that affect young people, the Estonian National Youth Council proposes the following steps to the XII Riigikogu and the Government of the Republic:

1. The coalition agreement will contain in a separate subsection the programme of the governing coalition in the youth policy sphere.

2. The governing coalition will compile the government action plan for the youth policy sphere up to the next Riigikogu elections, containing among other provisions the task of creating a new youth work strategy with the involvement of young people in the process.

3. By the local government council elections in 2013 the Constitution of the Republic of Estonia will have been amended, granting the right to vote in local government council elections to young people from the age of 16.

4. By no later than the end of 2013 each piece of draft legislation will be prepared with the mandatory analysis of its effect on young people.

5. To ensure youth involvement in the decision-making process in the instances when such decisions affect young people, the obligation to have consultations with young people will be set on the local, county and national levels.

6. The good practice of involvement and participation will become part of legislation.

7. To ensure sustainability and stable development of the youth umbrella organisations and to prevent their competition for new members, financing of the youth umbrella organisations (Estonian National Youth Council, Estonian Union of Student Bodies, Estonian Union of School Student Councils) will need to be based on a dedicated line in the state budget and separately from the system of allocation of annual grants to youth associations.

8. The term of the framework agreement concluded for spending of the operating subsidy allocated from the state budget to youth associations will be extended from one year to two years to ensure their sustainability and stability.

9. Additional finances will be found to create, analogously to the annual grant system for youth associations, an additional opportunity to apply for financing to cover fixed organisational costs even for youth associations with less than 500 members.

10. The local government obligation to support youth programmes and youth projects of youth associations will be restored in the legislation, also allocating finances to the local governments for this purpose.

11. A programme will be created to support domestic volunteer activities.

12. To encourage volunteer activities, the state will pay the social tax for the unemployed full-time volunteers during their volunteer activities and will implement other beneficial measures, like abolition of the obligation to pay the fringe benefits tax off the expenses connected with volunteers.

13. Career studies and consultations will become more available at general education schools and vocational education establishments. By 2014 career studies will have become a compulsory subject in the last year of basic school and upper secondary school.

14. To facilitate youth work development, by no later than 2015 the principle of youth financing will become legal in accordance with which finances are allocated from the state budget to local governments for youth work organisation, with cofinancing subject to the number of young people in a particular local government area.

15. To reduce youth unemployment, a four-year action plan will be created and resources of the EU structural funds will be used to the maximum.

16. Participation of youth representatives will be guaranteed in workgroups that tackle youth health issues, to ensure implementation of youth priorities when dealing with risk behaviour, healthy lifestyles and other health questions.