Mapping change: What do young Europeans want?

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What stories do Europeans tell? How do different generations of Europeans view Europe? Do hopes for its future vary significantly across age groups? For the past three years, a group of students, led by Professor Timothy Garton Ash at the European Studies Centre at the University of Oxford, have delved into these questions in the report Young Europeans speak to EU at europeanmoments.com.

In the first phase of the project, more than 200 Europeans were interviewed about their formative, best and worst experiences of Europe, as well as how they personally benefited from the EU and what they want the EU to have achieved by 2030.

With questions partly informed by the insights gleaned from these interviews, we then conducted four opinion polls, of approximately 12,000 respondents each, in partnership with Eupinions, across all EU member states and the UK between March 2020 and March 2021. The surveys studied three categories: young (aged 16-29 ), middle ( 30-49 ), and old ( 50-69 ).

One clear difference between the older and young Europeans interviewed is what they identify as a formative moment. Whereas a third of older Europeans point to the fall of the Berlin Wall, 39% of young Europeans recall personal travel or student exchange experiences, denoting the importance of free movement for young Europeans.

The polling confirmed that 76% of young Europeans believe that the EU would not be worth having without freedom of movement. The different emphasis placed by each generation on this freedom is probably reflected in the finding that young Europeans are far more likely to personally benefit from it. Only one-fifth of young Europeans, in contrast with 59% of those over 50, report that they never benefited from freedom of movement.

The findings also unexpectedly shattered the popular assumption that younger generations care more about the environment. For a third of interviewees of all generations, climate action is the thing they would most like the EU to have achieved by 2030.

Another unexpected finding was that 53% of young Europeans believe that authoritarian regimes are better equipped than democracies to tackle the climate crisis. This seems to be at odds with the support for democracy and pro-EU stance generally attributed to young Europeans. In fact, 65% of Europeans believe the EU should do more to uphold democratic institutions.

One potential explanation is that, while young Europeans value democracy, they are frustrated with its institutional performance. This explanation is consistent with the argument that young Europeans value policy outputs over the democratic procedures used to reach them.

At a time when the EU is threatened by internal as well as external anti-democratic forces, renewing trust in its institutions is paramount. The report includes policy recommendations for the EU, such as banning subsidies for fossil fuels and cracking down on illiberalism in Poland and Hungary, thereby standing up for liberal democracy.

If one message came across clearly from the polyphony of Europe’s stories it is this: the EU should reflect the key values that young Europeans believe in and deliver competently and promptly on promises, especially on climate action, job security, a regime of border management premised on free movement, and respect for human rights. The credibility of the EU hinges on tangible solutions to the challenges with which young Europeans are faced.

Ana Martins is a research assistant and podcast host for the Europe’s Stories project