Our Lana participated in preparatory workshops in the European Parliament on the occasion of tomorrow’s presentation of the research “Europe Kids Want”.
With more than 400 million people eligible to vote, the European Parliament elections are one of the largest democratic elections in the world.
Under the current EU law, EU member states are free to set their own minimum voting age in European elections. This age is set at 16 in Austria, Belgium, Germany and Malta, 17 in Greece and 18 in other member states. This means that in most EU countries, children will not be able to vote.
The elections to the European Parliament represent an important opportunity to highlight the challenges that children face and to highlight the priorities that they themselves think are important. That’s why the leading children’s rights organizations ChildFund Alliance, Eurochild, Save the Children, SOS Children’s Villages and UNICEF have joined forces to put children’s voices at the forefront of shaping the EU’s agenda for the next five years.
Together, these organizations led an EU-wide consultation process with member organizations to highlight children’s voices in setting the priorities of the new EU leadership.
At today’s meeting with members of the European Parliament, our Lana, along with her fellow councilors from SOS-Children’s Village, UNICEF and Eurochild, presented the results of the “The Europe Kids Want” research.
The meeting was attended by Caterina Chinnici, EPP, and Hilde Vautmans, Renew Europe, from the Intergroup for Children’s Rights, Iris Abraham, communication advisor from the cabinet of the Vice-President of the European Commission for Democracy and Demography Dubravka Šuica, Marie Cecille Rouillion, coordinator of the Commission for Children’s Rights and many others.
More than 9,000 children from Europe participated in the research. Over 1,500 responses came from Croatia. The research was conducted through an online questionnaire, focus groups and consultations.
Children are asking from the new candidates for the European Parliament to advocate for the realization of children’s rights and active child participation and to become champions for children’s rights by signing the Manifesto for Children’s Rights available at https://www.childrightsmanifesto.eu/ .
Research has shown that children want greater support for children’s mental health, better education of adults in providing support to children, greater advocacy for achieving active child participation, stopping discrimination and violence, better campaigns and actions in response to climate change, protection of children in the online world, education which will teach them life skills and prepare them for life, and to put children at the heart of Europe’s policies so that every child grows and develops in a creative, safe, happy, equal, healthy and quality environment.
Lana presented the results of research related to the protection of children from violence, her experience of participation and the topic of the mandate of the 14th convocation of the CCC of the City Opatija, which refers to the inclusion of children with disabilities through joint workshops and playrooms.