FYEG and EFAy congratulate first EU country to lower voting age for national elections

2007 / 06 / 19

written by Administrator of Federation od Young European Greens (repost from FYEG's website) 

Friday, 15 June 2007

The Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG) and the European Free Alliance Youth (EFAy) welcome the historical decision taken last week by the Austrian parliament to lower the voting age in national elections to 16. Being the first EU country to take this logical step, FYEG and EFAy strongly encourage the rest of the Member States to swiftly follow Austria’s example. 

EFAy Bureau Member and representative of Junge Union of SudTirol, Reinhild Campidell commented: "It is only fair to give young people the right to vote. At 16, they are old enough to take responsibility for their home and future, if that decision is given to them. Young people must be given the opportunity to tackle politics earlier and in doing so politics will become more interesting and more concerned with youth issues. Lowering the voting age guarantees that an interest in the youth and young people will be strengthened."

Marina Barbalata, Spokesperson of FYEG, comments: "It is about time that shallow slogans about promoting youth participation are being backed up by concrete action. By denying a valuable part of the population the right to influence their own future, the current party political system, already in erosion as shown by dropping participation rates, risks de-legitimizing itself further. We wonder when governments finally start to realize that lowering the voting age is not a nicety bestowed upon youth as a favour, but an essential instrument to close the ever widening gap between citizen and politics" 

Bartek Lech, Spokesperson of FYEG, adds: "The same applies to the European level. The only answer to the sorry state of legitimacy in which the European project resides at present is to strengthen the participation of its citizens, especially youth, in the debates about its future. For if youth is unable to identify with this project, Europe is a dead end street. Again, the only remedy is to truly allow for the active participation of youth, by recognizing the important role of European youth political organizations and by lowering the voting age for European elections to 16. As it has done in other occasions, Europe should assume a pioneering role in this matter and take the bold step to lower the voting age for the 2009 European elections. We call upon the European institutions to urgently take the necessary steps in that direction".