Homepage Youth Policy Structured dialogue with young people

Structured dialogue with young people

What does the structured dialogue mean?

The structured dialogue means consultations that public authority representatives, including representatives of the European Union institutions, have with young people on selected topics to obtain feedback and opinions of young people and use that to shape policies. The structured nature of the dialogue is revealed in its timing and the topics of consultations with young people: regular events during which young people can discuss pre-arranged topics with other young people and politicians from the European Union.

The structured dialogue is a direct result of the European Youth Policy White Paper that stresses the importance of having consultations with young people on youth-related issues and a logical consequence of the approval of the European Youth Pact. The structured dialogue was for the first time mentioned in the resolution passed by the Council of Ministers of the European Union in 2005.

The structured dialogue is based on 18-month work cycles, with the general topic of each cycle corresponding to the overall European cooperation priorities in that 18-month period.

The new European Union Youth Field Cooperation Framework (2010-2018) includes concrete activities aimed at efficient implementation of the structured dialogue:

Twice every year (during the EU presidency period of each member-state) youth consultations are conducted in all member-states on the agreed topics.
National workgroups are created to coordinate implementation of the structured dialogue in the member-states.
Twice every year the EU presidency state initiates the European Union Youth Conference to discuss results of the youth consultations conducted in the member-states. There are also discussions during the European Youth Week.
A European leadership committee is created for each 18-month period to coordinate implementation of the structured dialogue across Europe.

Within the same cooperation framework the EU member-states are encouraged to give the leading role in this process to unions of youth associations.

Implementation of the structured dialogue in Estonia

The national workgroup for implementation of the structured dialogue was created in Estonia on the initiative and coordination of the ENYC in February 2010. The workgroup consists of representatives of the following organisations: Estonian National Youth Council, Estonian National Agency for Youth in Action Programme, Estonian Youth Institute, Estonian Youth Work Centre (Ministry of Education and Research) and youth participation assemblies.

The first consultation period had ended on 15 March 2010 and the corresponding report was submitted to the European leadership committee, containing the opinions of young people in Estonia about employment issues based on the July 2009 survey results from one thousand young respondents residing in Estonia.

On 13-16 April 2010 the European Union Youth Conference was held in Spain, with representatives of all EU member and candidate-states discussing results of national consultations.

During the II consultation period the ENYC conducted in July and August 2010 in Estonia a nationwide youth consultation with the general topic of youth employment. The consultation comprised workshops and discussions as part of various youth events and there was also an online consultation facility. During the II consultation period a total of 1,604 young people aged between 15 and 30 years participated in the consultations in Estonia: 1,371 online and 233 in discussions.

The III consultation period commenced in December 2010 and will end in February 2011! It will also include an online questionnaire and regional round table discussions.

The contact person for structured dialogue implementation questions is Martti Martinson, the ENL Youth Policy Specialist (martti@enl.ee).