We, the Ukrainian Vibes team, embarked on exploration of youth engagement in politics with the series of online events, the first of which took place on September 12th. Our Workshop “Youth Voices Unite: Driving Change through Youth Participation in the EU and Ukraine” set out to answer a fundamental question: how does youth involvement in politics differ between Europe and Ukraine? To shed light on this topic, we were fortunate to have two knowledgeable speakers share their insights: Paale Siebo, representing the Youth Council in Leipzig, and Yarina Borenko, a respected researcher offering her perspective on Ukraine, discussed the diverse forms and challenges of youth participation in politics and provided valuable perspectives on the matter.

An Example of Youth Participation in Germany: The Leipzig Youth Council 

As a member of the Leipzig Youth council, Paale Siebo represented the German side of youth participation in our workshop, and gave an overview of all the different ways that young people are taking direct action in the decision-making process: The youth parliament in Leipzig is a fairly new one, founded in 2015, and is part of the structure of city council and administration. Eligible and able to vote are young people between 14 and 21 years old who lived in Leipzig for at least 3 months, and there are elections every two years. Paale Siebo sees very clear benefits for everybody involved, as the local partners get support and young people get heard. Over the past years, the youth council has had 672 motions in total that were presented to the city council, 437 of which were accepted, and of that, 130 for the city council, 56 were accepted by council, 11 were denied, are currently 27 pending, and 36 were withdrawn again. Therefore, it can be said that in Leipzig, there is a very strong youth presence on a local level. 

Challenges and Chances for Youth Participation in Ukraine 

As for Ukraine, Yarina Borenko sees a certain type of paradox in the political participation of the youth in Ukraine. On one hand, there is an undeniable declining interest in politics, which expresses itself in a declining number of memberships in parties. There is generally is less trust in political institutions among Ukrainian youth. On the other hand, young people in Ukraine are not steering away from expressing their opinions or getting involved in societal changes, they simply use unconventional, or rather: untraditional ways. Young people tend to go to demonstrations, sign petitions and use digital engagement for their self-expression and to express their political identity. 

However, on an institutional level, there is very little framework that would actively include or at least encourage young Ukrainians to participate in politics. In 2014, the youth wings of political parties have disappeared altogether, making it even more complicated to give space to young people in political parties. Moreover, Yarina Borenko stated that in the past ten years, there was little to no policies made concerning young people directly, and that therefore, ”the youth participated as adults.“ 

According to Ms. Borenko, one of the main problems with youth participation in Ukraine is that the older generations simply do not take them into consideration: political parties do not have appropriate youth policies and therefore do not really know what the concerns of the youth are and how to adress them in the first place. As a consequence, Ms. Borenko suggests that first of all the political parties should rethink their strategies in order to have any appeal for the youth – not only to gain votes, but to make them get involved on a formal institutional level too. Secondly, as the expert points out, not all is lost, because on a more local level, the youth can become active in youth councils and is already doing so. While these may not be able to make decisions about how to distribute resources, and may not have the same institutional powers as the one in Leipzig, they can advise the political institutions and make a mark on a local level. 

A Question of Education and Opportunities: A Glimpse Into the Future 

The audience was of course actively participating in the discussion of the questions of youth involvement in Ukraine as compared to Germany. In particular, several young Ukrainian students pointed out that they are under the impression that an old soviet stereotype about young people not being competent enough to participate in politics in any way is still very much alive and kicking in Ukraine. In their opinion, this is another factor that keeps the younger generations from getting involved – and, in a roundabout way, keeps said stereotype alive in the mind of the older generations. Therefore, not only is it a question of the youth being interested, but it is more of a vicious cycle of non-participation, lack of trust into political institutions, and lack of trust from the older generation in the younger one. As a consequence, it would most likely be necessary to break this cycle at different points: First of all, the youth needs to be taken seriously and needs to be given an institutional framework, and secondly, as Ms. Borneo also pointed out, there needs to be more political education for the youth, and they need to see that they actually can get active and be heard. 

We would like to thank our two speakers for providing us with their expertise on the topic and giving our workshop series such a strong start. And, of course, a big thank you to all of our participants, who, through their participation in our event, showed that the youth in both countries is interested in political topics.

Ukrainian Vibes is a project aimed to bring Ukrainian and EU citizens closer together, and share perspectives on European values and the potential for sustainable development in Ukraine. This year we plan to focus on bringing attention to the relevant and not obvious consequences of war and what every single one of us can do to protect Ukraine now and the world in future. The project is supported by the European Public Sphere and the AS volunteer program, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development.