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1. Youth parliament

2. Youth councils and/or youth advisory boards

3. Higher education student union(s)

4. School student union(s)

5. Other bodies

Youth parliament

The Council of the German-speaking Youth (Rat der Deutschsprachigen Jugend, RDJ) has developed the project “Youth Parliament”. This project gives young people the opportunity to reflect on social issues, to research, to engage in a dialogue, to make demands, to argue for their ideas in a parliamentary debate. The creation of a youth parliament in the German-speaking Community offers young people an active form of participation. The young people live democracy and become active partners in politics.

The pilot project "Youth Parliament" was launched in 2004 and was not intended to remain a one-time action but to become an recurrent project, integrated into the curriculum of secondary schools. Unfortunately, this never happened until now, due to many different reasons.

In a cooperation between the Council of the German-speaking Youth and the Parliament of the German-speaking Community (Parlament der Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft, PDG), another youth parliament project is taking place in 2023. 

Youth councils and/or youth advisory boards

Youth Council

The Council of the German-speaking Youth was established by royal enactment on 30 December 1983. It is the independent federation of individual young people, youth centres, local youth councils, youth organisations of the political parties, youth organisations and youth services in the German-Speaking Community. The general aim of the Council of the German-speaking Youth is to promote all activities which are useful to enable the participation of young people in the German-Speaking Community on decisions and measures which concern them. The Council of the German-speaking Youth considers itself as a platform that gives young people the opportunity for active participation in the design of youth policy, for developing projects and for experiencing (European) democracy.

The Council of the German-speaking Youth is steered by a Steering Committee and a General Assembly. Members must not be older than 35 years by the time that they are nominated. Different working groups develop projects and contribute to the overall work of the Council. To fulfil its tasks, the Council receives attendance fees and the secretarial and organisational work is done by two persons working for the Youth Office (Jugendbüro). Moreover the Council can get funding for specific projects.

The Youth Council gives young people the opportunity to actively shape their future. To this end, it helps creating further possibilities for participation and promoting political education. For this reason, the Youth Council encourages the creation of student councils in secondary schools and the inclusion of new members. The Youth Council tries to strengthen its own membership in other committees, such as administrative boards and advisory bodies.

Youth Advisory Board

There is only one youth advisory board in the municipality of Eupen (Jugendbeirat der Stadt Eupen). The youth advisory board functions as a link between the municipality of Eupen, the youth organizations, the youth centers and the non-organized young people in and around the city of Eupen.

Tasks of the youth advisory board:

• To represent the interests of young people in the municipality of Eupen and to submit regular opinions on the municipalities projects in the youth field.
• The advisory board may, at the request of municipal authorities, submit opinions on the moral, educational and legal aspects of problems faced by young people in Eupen.

The youth advisory board may have recourse to the assistance of competent experts for certain matters and for a limited duration.

There are also a few children’s councils in some municipalities (Raeren and Lontzen), either supported by the local youth work (e.g. in Raeren) or the municipality itself (e.g. in Lontzen). A trained educator and the local youth worker support the children’s council.

The first project, in 2007, was subsidized with EU-Funds. Since the end of the EU project, the children's councils are financed entirely by local authorities.

Higher education student union(s)

There are four student unions representing students from the German-speaking Community towards the different universities and high schools in Belgium and Germany. These student unions are located on the nearest campuses in Belgium and German:

Destuna (Deutschsprachige Studenten in Namur) for german-speaking students studying in Namur.

Eumavia Lovaniensis (Eupen-Malmedy-St. Vith) for german-speaking students studying in Louvain-la-Neuve

Paludia for german-speaking students studying in Liège.

Ostana for german-speaking students studying in Brussels.

School student union(s)

Article 55 of the Decree on the mandate to the school boards and school staff and on the general pedagogical and organizational provisions for regular and special schools of 31 August 1998 (Dekret vom 31. August 1998 über den Auftrag an die Schulträger und das Schulpersonal sowie über die allgemeinen pädagogischen und organisatorischen Bestimmungen für die Regel- und Förderschulen) states:

The pupils are involved in school life through elected pupil unions. The school principal is obliged to allow for a pupil union from the 2nd level of secondary education on. The pupils' representatives have an information and consultation right. The pedagogical project of each school contains provisions on the form of the participation of pupil unions. These provisions are elaborated together with the pupil's representation in the so called Pedagogical Council and presented to the principal for approval.

In some schools of the German-speaking Community, pupil unions are accompagnied by a trained youth worker from the youth information centres. This allows for a link between formal and non-formal education.

Other bodies

There are no other youth representation bodies in the German-speaking Community.