One third of young Europeans are not interested to vote in the 2014 European Parliament elections, according to a Commission survey on youth participation in democratic life.
Young people are less inclined to vote than their parents and show a growing dissatisfaction with the way politics works. Yet, young people want to participate and ask for more opportunities to have a say on politics. Young people show a strong European identity and a higher appreciation of European integration than other age groups, says the outcome of the survey, which the Commission released on Friday.
Around one thirds (35 percent) of the young generation say they are unlikely to vote, while almost two third (64 percent) say they intend to vote.
"I want to raise awareness of the European Parliament elections and inform young people why it is important to vote. European Youth Week is an excellent opportunity to enhance young peoples' active participation in society and to showcase what has been achieved in the last 25 years of EU support for youth in Europe," said Androulla Vassiliou, EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth.
European Youth Week (26 May-2 June) will focus on young people's active citizenship participation in society. Hundreds of events will be organized in the 27 EU countries, Croatia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey. The Youth week will also celebrate the silver anniversary of the EU's support for youth which helped around 2.5 million young people and youth workers to participate in cross-border exchanges, European voluntary service and other non-formal learning activities.
Young people's intention to vote is 75 percent or above in Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta and 55 percent or lower in Cyprus, Greece, Estonia, Czech Republic and Slovenia.
The survey also shows that among those who intend to vote around one third (28 percent) is certain that they will do so, whereas 11 percent say they will definitely not vote. Among those who are likely to vote, nine in ten would do so because they believe that democracy, Europe and the European elections are important. Among those who are not likely to vote two out of three believe that their vote will not change anything.
The survey was done in April 2013 among 13,000 young people aged 15 to 30 in the 27 EU Member-States and 500 young people in Croatia. The objective was to study young peoples' attitudes towards participation in society and in the European elections in 2014.
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