DWARS and other youth organisations demand place in formation!

DWARS is working with other youth organisations to demand a place at the formation table, so that in conversation with the informateur we can identify what young people are most concerned about. DWARS is not happy with the current composition of forming parties. Nevertheless, we want to tell the next cabinet what we really think is important, such as making it a top priority to tackle the climate crisis fairly, provide affordable housing for young people, reverse the cuts in youth care, improve youth participation, etc. See below the statement of the 14 participating youth organisations:

Together, we, five civil society youth organisations as well as nine political youth organisations - from left to right, sent a letter to the informateur calling on him and the forming parties to engage with us. Our aim is not just to have a one-off say during the formation process, but to work together to ensure the structural and meaningful involvement of young people in the formation of the new cabinet and their policies.

It is more important than ever for young people's voices to be heard at the formation table. Indeed, several surveys show that many young people are affected by current policies. For instance, half of young people struggled to make ends meet last year, the average starter can only afford 3.4% of houses on the purchase market, and it appears that young people's mental health is still at an all-time low even years after the corona crisis. Young people also experience major concerns about, for instance, climate policy, uncertainty around paying back their student debt and problems in youth welfare. The position of young people has thus continued to deteriorate in many areas in recent years.

What the role of (political) youth organisations should look like is an important question that we have carefully considered. We therefore think it is important not only to name the problems, but also to come up with concrete solutions. Despite the fact that young people and political youth organisations sometimes have different ideas about policies for our and future generations, we succeeded in jointly arriving at ten essential principles. From the political left to the right, we call on the forming parties to commit to the following formation action points:

1. Develop a national youth strategy
2. Put maximum effort into achieving climate targets, with equitable and affordable measures
3. Make housing available and affordable for young people
4. Put young people back in a healthy financial position
5. Ensure accessible education that focuses on the development of pupils and students
6. Create an action plan with young people to improve their mental health
7. Give access to youth care to all young people who need it
8. Implement the generation test
9. Offer young farmers prospects for future-proof agriculture
10. Empower youth organisations and promote youth participation

In an initial meeting with the informateur and forming parties, we would like to discuss and consider these points on which issues the voice of young people is particularly important for the forming parties. We then want to work with them to come up with concrete solutions for these ten topics. In doing so, we find it important that the next cabinet's coalition agreement is future-proof. Indeed, the decisions we make now will have lasting impact on our generation and those of the generations to come.

Curious about the whole letter and the content of the ten action points? Read it here.

This is a collaboration between:

• National Youth Council (NJR)
• Young Climate Movement (JKB)
• National Action Committee for School Students (LAKS)
• Youth Organisation for Vocational Education (JOB MBO)
• Interstedelijk Studentenoverleg (ISO)
• Youth organisation Freedom and Democracy (JOVD)
• DWARS
• Young Socialists (JS)
• Young Social Contract (JSC)
• Young Democrats (JD)
• BBB Young
• Christian Democratic Youth Appeal (CDJA)
• PerspectieF
• Volt Violet