{"id":468799,"date":"2026-10-21T17:15:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T15:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/10\/21\/boland-cese-i-politici-devono-ascoltare-i-giovani-sono-preoccupati-per-il-loro-futuro\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T17:30:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T15:30:17","slug":"boland-eesc-politicians-must-listen-to-young-people-they-are-worried-about-their-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/10\/21\/boland-eesc-politicians-must-listen-to-young-people-they-are-worried-about-their-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Boland (EESC): “Politicians must listen to young people; they are worried about their future”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 \u201cYoung people desperately need to hear from politicians that their concerns are being listened to and their anxieties shared.\u201d These were the words used today (21 October) by the President of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), S\u00e9amus Boland<\/strong>, to defend the young people who have taken to the streets in Italy, Spain, and France in recent days to protest against the high cost of living, energy prices, and the tax burden, during a press briefing today (21 October). Boland explained that \u201cpoll after poll shows that the cost of living is citizens\u2019 main concern<\/strong>\u201d and, for this reason, tomorrow he will host \u201cour first annual high-level conference on tackling poverty<\/a>, which will be attended by EU leaders, policy-makers, and civil society organisations.\u201d The title of the high-level debate \u2013 to be held on the sidelines of the Committee\u2019s 609th plenary session \u2013 is \u201cEradicating poverty by 2050: fulfilling our collective responsibility<\/a>\u201d. <\/p>\n

To tackle poverty, according to the President, \u201cAn integrated European response is needed to tackle its multidimensional nature, ranging from housing and education to health and access to services.\u201d Here, \u201cthe involvement of civil society is essential: policies must be designed with the people they will affect in mind. This is only possible by involving the social partners and civil society itself,\u201d he noted. During tomorrow\u2019s meeting, a memorandum of understanding will also be signed between the European Commission and the EESC regarding the EU\u2019s strategy against poverty <\/a><\/strong>, which, according to Boland, \u201cwill enable the development of better, more concrete, and widely supported policies.\u201d This signing comes after the president \u201cdiscussed this issue over the past year with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Prime Minister Ant\u00f3nio Costa, Parliament President Roberta Metsola, 19 commissioners and numerous high-profile MEPs.\u201d <\/p>\n

On the cost of living in the European Union, Boland reiterates that we must \u201ctalk about an emergency\u201d because, as long as we talk \u201cabout solutions \u2013 perhaps short-term ones \u2013 people get the impression that nobody is really listening to them.\u201d On the contrary, when \u201cthe emergency is acknowledged, I believe the level of unrest may subside, because a positive signal is finally being sent,\u201d he observed. For this reason, in recent days the President met with a French student<\/strong> and \u201clistened to him very carefully\u201d because \u201cthe voices of young people expressing their discontent must be heard and translated into concrete action.\u201d <\/p>\n

After many media outlets and politicians had, in recent days, spoken of the protests solely as incidents of violence, Boland recalled that \u201ceven in 1968 \u2013 a time I experienced first-hand \u2013 young people were denigrated in exactly the same way.”<\/strong> And \u201cwe know full well how that turned out,\u201d he commented, adding that \u201cwe must not disparage them.\u201d On the one hand, \u201cit is obvious that we must firmly oppose any incitement to violence,\u201d as \u201cit is not the best way\u201d to put forward one\u2019s demands. On the other hand, however, \u201cwe must not condemn young people for freely expressing their opinions and concerns about the future, because if they are worried, it is because the generations currently in power are not getting the message across<\/strong>, and because we continue not to listen,<\/strong>\u201d he clarified. <\/p>\n

Regarding the current negotiations on the EU\u2019s multiannual budget<\/a> (MFF) for 2028\u20132034, Boland noted that \u201cthe EU\u2019s current \u2013 and appropriate \u2013 focus on competitiveness and security must not come at the expense of social inclusion.\u201d This means that the MFF \u201cmust not only adequately fund priorities such as cohesion, competitiveness, and rural development, but must also involve people and communities in its implementation.\u201d At a time \u201cwhen citizens are demanding to be heard, we must strengthen, not weaken, this voice,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The President of the European Economic and Social Committee stresses that \u201cthose in power are not sending the right message\u201d and announces the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the European Commission on the EU\u2019s strategy to combat poverty<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7908,"featured_media":468797,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681,29788],"tags":[26261,25847,27803,26650,36321,30326],"class_list":["post-468799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-diritti-en","tag-eesc-en","tag-poverta-en","tag-protesterand","tag-seamus-boland","tag-studenti-en-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7908"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468799"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":468800,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468799\/revisions\/468800"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}