Forging Europe’s Next Generations: The European Parliament’s Children and Youth Policy

Abstract

In 1954, three years before the Treaties of Rome were signed, MEPs entered into what a report of the EP’s Committee on Social Affairs would 21 years later call the “crusade to help young people” in the European Communities. At a time when the only adopted Community Treaty—the ECSC Treaty—contained no mention of children and youth, MEPs put these two groups on the EP’s social agenda, aiming to point out young persons’ right to be included in Community social policy. From that point, children and youth formed a focus group of EP engagement in social policy. While the EP’s political impact in the area remained limited, this chapter provides important insights into the factors driving MEPs’ socio-political activism at the time. Particularly with regard to ideational factors, the findings of this chapter help understand the delegates’ (at times more successful) activism in other case studies and policy areas during the same period.