EAPN España | Encuentro Estatal de Diálogo Estructurado: "La juventud como ciudadanía activa"

In Spain there is a type of consultation called Structured Dialogue (Dialogo Estructurado), an initiative launched by the European, with the purpose of serving as a forum for joint reflection on priorities, implementation and follow-up of European cooperation in the youth field. This initiative involves regular consultation with young people and youth organisations at all levels in EU countries. It also promotes dialogue between youth representatives and policymakers at youth conferences organised by the Member States holding the Presidency of the EU during European Youth Week.

With the purpose of adapting the policies to the needs of those they are aimed towards, the Ministry of Social Rights and 2030 Agenda (Ministerio de Derechos Sociales y Agenda 2030) guarantees that representatives for youth and youth organisations actively participate in the design and application of policies and action plans for youth Employment and entrepreneurship.

The European Youth Strategy establishes Structured Dialogue between youth and people responsible for youth policies within the member states, which entails the development of regular enquiries with youth and their representatives in advisory bodies and youth organisations at all levels. In Spain this structured dialogue takes place within the Inter-Ministerial Commission on Youth (Comisión Interministerial para la Juventud); special attention to proposals and initiatives made by the Youth Council of Spain are among its tasks.

The Spanish Youth Council is the main body advising public officials on the process of elaborating policies related to youth. It binds together a total of 76 youth entities and it is made out of the Autonomous Regions Youth Councils as well as the national youth organisations.

The main collective actors representing young people are those coveredin previous sections. There are no other institutional actors other than those already mentioned.

Specifically targeted public policies for youth are carried out at two different levels, as discussed in chapter one. The general coordination of information for analysing and designing such policies takes place from the Youth Institute (INJUVE). But competences in the field of youth are in the hands of the Autonomous Communities and the respective councils that understand this matter are the ones in charge of carrying out the greater part of the implantation, monitoring and evaluation of public youth policies.

The Youth Institute is the central government body responsible for youth policies at the state level in 1977. Therefore, it maintains the status of national reference point in dialogue with the other ministerial departments and economic and social agents, with the autonomous communities, municipalities and youth associations. Moreover, the Youth Institute has guaranteed its presence at state level through its lines of research, materials, information, national and European programmes, international resources, examples of good practice and pilot initiatives.