Young Europeans are being asked to build a future they cannot afford
What does it mean to plan your future when you cannot afford a home, face insecure employment and worry about the world you will inherit? For many young Europeans, these are not hypothetical questions. They are part of everyday life.
Yet political debates about younger generations often focus on falling birth rates, demographic decline and the need to encourage people to have children. According to Benedetta Scuderi, Italian Member of the European Parliament with the Greens/EFA group, this misses a crucial part of the picture: why are so many young people struggling to imagine a stable future in the first place?
In an interview with the United Citizens of Europe podcast hosted by Luca P. De Cristofaro, MEP Benedetta Scuderi argued that European policymakers must look beyond demographic statistics and confront the economic and social conditions affecting young people’s lives. Low wages, precarious work, the housing crisis and climate anxiety are all part of the problem. And if Europe wants younger generations to believe in its future, she argues, it needs to offer them better opportunities today.
From political disillusionment to the European Parliament
Scuderi’s own journey into politics was not a straightforward career plan. Her story, as she explained in our interview, began with a desire to make a difference in her community.
As a student, she joined groups campaigning for students’ rights. She also became involved in organisations working against organised crime and supporting migrants’ rights. Yet despite this early activism, she struggled to find a political party in which she felt represented. By the end of university, that frustration had grown. She began to question whether political engagement could really change anything and turned towards sustainability consulting, hoping to make a difference through the private sector. Then came a turning point.
While studying and working on climate, energy and sustainability, Scuderi encountered the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The urgency of the climate crisis made her reconsider where meaningful change could happen. She came to believe that individual professional choices were not enough: without political will and direction, the systemic changes society needed would remain out of reach. That realisation brought her back to political activism. A local meeting of the Greens, followed by contact with the Young European Greens, opened the door to a different kind of political community. Through that experience, she helped establish the Italian Young Greens and eventually moved towards European politics.
Her account offers a revealing perspective on political disengagement among young people. Feeling disconnected from established politics does not necessarily mean that young people have stopped caring. Sometimes, it means they have not yet found a space where they believe their involvement can make a difference.
Why young people need more than a seat at the table
How can political institutions encourage more young people to participate in democracy?
For Benedetta Scuderi, one answer lies in creating spaces where younger generations can develop their own political priorities and learn through experience. Reflecting on the creation of the Italian Young Greens, she explained that a youth organisation can offer a way to engage in politics without immediately having to navigate the structures and expectations of a traditional political party.
Young people need room to decide what matters to them, how they want to organise and how they want to express their ideas. Intergenerational dialogue remains important, she noted, but younger generations also need spaces where they can speak freely without feeling misunderstood or judged.
Representation is equally important. As Scuderi put it during our conversation: “We can talk about young people, we need to talk with young people.”
That principle should go beyond consultations and symbolic gestures. Young people must also have real opportunities to stand for elected positions and participate in decisions that affect their lives. But there is a practical obstacle that political debates sometimes overlook: participation takes time and resources.
Young people facing insecure employment, high housing costs and financial instability may struggle to find the time or money to campaign, join organisations or even attend political meetings. The same insecurity that makes political change so important can also make it harder to participate in bringing it about. Accordin to MEP Scuderi, addressing youth disengagement therefore means lowering these barriers, not simply telling younger generations to become more active.
“We can talk about young people, we need to talk with young people.”
Benedetta Scuderi – Member of the European Parliament
Jobs, housing and climate anxiety: what should Europe deliver?
When we asked Scuderi what younger generations should expect from the European Parliament, she pointed to a broad range of issues that go to the heart of everyday life. Young people need access to education, decent jobs and affordable housing. They also need confidence that the places where they live will remain habitable in the face of climate change.
These concerns are interconnected. Financial insecurity makes it harder to plan for the future, while the climate crisis adds another layer of uncertainty to decisions about careers, families and where to live. Scuderi was particularly critical of political discussions about declining birth rates that focus on encouraging people to have children without sufficiently addressing the conditions that make doing so difficult. The question, in her view, should not simply be how to persuade young people to start families. It should also be how to ensure they have the economic security and opportunities to make meaningful choices about their lives.
This is where European policy becomes particularly important. Employment standards, regional investment, education programmes and the transition to a sustainable economy all influence the opportunities available to younger generations. For MEP Scuderi, a just transition must combine environmental transformation with social justice, workers’ rights and better opportunities to develop new skills. The shift towards a greener economy cannot be considered successful if the people expected to live through it are left behind.
Erasmus+ and cohesion funds: why European investment matters
The debate about Europe’s future is also a debate about how the EU chooses to invest its resources.
During our interview, Scuderi expressed concern about the possibility of cuts to cohesion funding, which supports economic, social and territorial development across European regions. She warned that reducing these resources could undermine investment in skills, innovation, the green transition and social development, particularly in less-developed regions and rural areas. For young people, the consequences could extend well beyond public budgets. Regional investment helps shape access to opportunities, including education, employment and the possibility of building a future without having to leave one’s community. Scuderi also argued that Erasmus+ funding should be expanded rather than cut, with greater scholarship support and more opportunities for participants. International mobility and educational exchanges can help young people develop skills, build relationships across borders and experience Europe beyond their own national context. But these opportunities are meaningful only if people can access them, regardless of their financial circumstances.
Her argument is that European solidarity must translate into practical support. Young people need more than speeches about a shared European identity: they need programmes and investments that make that identity tangible in their everyday lives.
Can the EU protect young people from precarious work?
One of the specific policy issues Scuderi highlighted in our conversation was the European Parliament’s work on unpaid internships.
She discussed her involvement in the negotiations on a proposed directive addressing unpaid internships, explaining that she wanted the legislation to prevent the abuse of internships as a substitute for paid employment.
For young people trying to enter the labour market, internships can provide valuable experience. But when opportunities depend on being able to work without pay, access becomes unequal. Those who cannot afford to support themselves financially may be excluded from professional pathways that others can pursue. The issue illustrates a wider challenge for European policymakers: how can young people be expected to build careers and become independent if the first steps into working life are themselves financially inaccessible? For Scuderi, improving the quality of employment and addressing economic insecurity must be central to any serious effort to support younger generations.
Social media, misinformation and the future of European democracy
The challenges facing young Europeans are not only economic. They also concern the information people encounter and the ways they participate in public debate. In the interview, De Cristofaro asked Scuderi about the political influence of platforms such as Meta and X, including the wider debate around the role of powerful technology figures in European political discourse, particularly among younger audiences.
She raised concerns about the power of platform algorithms, the use of personal data and the spread of misinformation and hate speech. In her view, European institutions should demand greater transparency and ensure that decisions affecting public debate are not left entirely to private technology companies. Her argument raises an important question for European democracy: how can citizens make informed political choices when the information they see is shaped by systems they cannot easily understand or scrutinise?
For younger generations, who often encounter political news through digital platforms, media literacy and transparency are increasingly important parts of civic participation. Member of the European Parliament Benedetta Scuderi also stressed the need to support young activists and civil society organisations. Public institutions, she argued, should take young people’s demands seriously and follow up on commitments made through consultations and engagement initiatives.
Inviting young people to share their views is only the first step. Their participation matters when it can influence what happens next.
Scuderi’s advice to young people who feel unheard
Despite her concerns about the direction of European politics, Scuderi ended our conversation with a practical message for young people who want to make a difference but feel powerless.
Her advice was simple: find your community.
Political engagement can be intimidating, particularly when the problems seem overwhelming and institutions appear distant. Acting alone can make those feelings even stronger.
Finding people who share your concerns, supporting one another and working collectively can make participation feel more possible. That might mean joining an association, supporting a local campaign, taking part in demonstrations, contacting elected representatives or eventually standing for office. Not everyone needs to follow the same path. What matters is finding a way to participate that feels meaningful and sustainable.
MEP Benedetta Scuderi’s own journey, from student activism and sustainability consulting to the European Parliament, illustrates how political engagement can develop over time. It can begin with frustration, grow through community and eventually lead to a role in the institutions where decisions are made.
A Europe that listens must also deliver
The conversation with Benedetta Scuderi highlights a challenge that goes beyond any single political party or institution. Young Europeans need to feel that democracy can respond to the problems they face.
That means tackling insecure employment, improving access to housing, protecting opportunities for education and mobility, investing in regions and taking climate concerns seriously. It also means giving younger generations meaningful opportunities to influence decisions rather than treating them solely as the recipients of policies designed by others.
Europe’s future cannot be separated from the conditions in which its young people live today.
And if European institutions want younger generations to believe in that future, they must demonstrate that political participation can lead to tangible change.
Listen to the full conversation with MEP Benedetta Scuderi on the United Citizens of Europe podcast, and follow UCoE for more discussions on European politics, youth participation and the issues shaping the continent’s future.