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1. Existence of a national strategy to increase young people's political and civil society participation

2. Scope and contents

3. Responsible authority for the implementation of the strategy

4. Revisions/ Updates

Existence of a national strategy to increase young people's political and civil society participation

There is no separate strategy to increase young people's political and civil society participation in Romania. However, a special section of the Youth Strategy for 2015-2020, adopted in 2015 through Government Decision no. 24/2015 refers to youth participation.

Scope and contents

The Youth Strategy for 2015-2020 aimed to address national and local level participation, and public, civic and political participation.

The specific objectives of the Youth Strategy on youth participation have been:

1. Increase youth participation in community life, in all its social, educational, cultural, economic and health aspects;
2. Increase youth participation in political life;
3. Increase participation of youth-led and youth-serving non-governmental organisations in the structured dialogue.

The target groups of the lines of actions under the key area of intervention on participation and volunteering of young people have been:

• young people involved in the NGO sector;
• volunteers and young people who developed skills outside recognised forms of education and need a recognition of their skills;
• young people with low levels of participation in associative, social and political life.

Responsible authority for the implementation of the strategy

The Ministry of Youth and Sports was the main government authority responsible for the implementation, coordination and monitoring of the national Youth Strategy for 2015-2020. It was in charge with:

• drafting the Action Plan of the Strategy;
• drafting and implementing a monitoring and evaluation plan of the Strategy;
• designing and implementing the actions under the key area of intervention on participation and others.

However, an action plan allowing systematic implementation of the strategy, monitoring and evaluation the strategy, was not adopted.

After the establishment of the Ministry of Family, Youth and Equal Opportunities in January 2022, the place of the former Ministry of Youth and Sport in the strategic promotion of youth participation shall be taken by the new structure.

Revisions/Updates

In 2020 the Ministry of Youth and Sports started preparing the youth strategy 2021-2027. In December 2020 a needs assessment was provided by the Life Quality Institute to support the elaboration of the strategy in 2021. Additionally, the Youth Barometer 2020 was released with the same aim. Other than that, consultations with the Counties’ Directorates on Youth and Sport and with other governmental institutions with responsibilities in the field of youth were organized. Based on the outcomes of the research and the consultation processes and after consultation with the National Council for Youth, a preliminary proposal for the new Youth Strategy, in line with the European Youth Strategy, was published in 2021. In 2022, the consultation processes with the governmental and non-governmental organisations will continue, aiming to have the final project adopted by the end of the year. A new series of meetings started in March 2023. In March 2024 the strategic process is ongoing and the new Youth Strategy is under final consultation with the Government Ministries and other institutions.