AGE EQUALITY IN EUROPE: The issue of youth participation in democracy.

The literature on anti-discrimination legislation finds its origins in the American political context following the War of Secession and the subsequent highly discriminatory legislation against African Americans: under the principle of separate but equal, race equality was only formally guaranteed. Following the US Supreme Court landmark decision Brown v. Board of Education of 1954, racial discrimination was challenged in the school system, triggering larger movements for civil rights and substantive equality across the country, leading to the long-awaited Civil Rights Act in 1964. In Europe, anti-discrimination law was influenced by the great and resonant American battles. The then European Economic Community (EEC) began to speak of equality and non-discrimination, but the purposes were economic: the object of protection from discrimination were in fact workers rather than human beings. Due to the progressive relevance given to human rights and their recognition, the European Union included various provisions to protect against discrimination during its development process: the founding treaties of the Union itself (TFEU and TEU), the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, the EU Equality Directives and the European Convention on Human Rights, became concrete and effective instruments of non-discrimination on the basis of several grounds. Age, however, did not immediately figure among the grounds to be protected: it is only with the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1997 that new recognitions, new challenges, and new areas started being addressed. Age is now protected within the employment and occupational area under the Employment Equality Directive, which has been implemented at a national level by all Member States, some going beyond its protection and some remaining faithful to its scope of application. Discrimination against young people is a much debated and still recently developed issue. In addition to the difficulty of defining youth due to the lack of harmony between EU member states, it is a “critical stage of life” as it is a transitional period between childhood and adulthood, where stereotypes, difficulties and discrimination can occur in different areas such as education, employment and participation. A phenomenon that has recently come to the fore is that of NEETs (Not in Employment, Educational or Training), which is widespread among young people in Europe. At the institutional level, the EU and the Council of Europe have bodies that work with and for young people, making sure that young European citizens are given a fair voice and that their rights are fully guaranteed. However, some reflections lead to the difficulty in the active participation of young people: in recent years an important role has been recognised to civil society organisations as a direct link between young citizens and the “top”. When we talk about youth participation we are faced with a much-debated issue. Recent reflections on the gradual decline and detachment from political participation at national and European level cannot, however, be taken as synonymous with disinterest: new, non-conventional forms of participation are spreading, having great resonance and enabling young people across Europe not to feel alone, but as a community. For its part, the EU is providing legislations, policies and concrete tools to give a voice to young people, to the future of Europe, in the name of the values on which it was founded: democracy, participation, equality.