Youth7
Youth7 (Y7) is the civic youth participation process under the German G7 Presidency and is the G7 platform for dialogue with the young generation. Members of the Y7 develop concrete recommendations for action that are to be incorporated in the G7 process to represent the perspective of the young generation.
Task of the Youth7
The Y7 represents the interests of the young generation in the G7 countries and feeds its positions into the political process. The Y7 process is in the hands of young people themselves. The jointly developed demands will result in a Y7 communiqué that will be handed over to the G7 Presidency in the run-up to the G7 Summit. In this way, the demands of the Y7 are to be taken into account in the decisions of the heads of state and government of the G7 countries.
Members of the Youth7
The members of the Y7 are four youth delegates aged 18-30 from each of the G7 countries, the G7 host countries and the European Union. They negotiate their positions on G7 issues at the annual Y7 summit and adopt a joint communiqué.
In the run-up to the summit, a ten-member preparatory team consisting of young people from youth associations in Germany will organise the specific consultation process on G7 issues. The team co-chairs are Carolina Claus and Benjamin Günther.
The Y7 dialogue process is being coordinated and implemented in 2022 by IJAB – the International Youth Service of the Federal Republic of Germany – on behalf of the Federal Government. To this end, IJAB works closely with youth associations through the German National Committee for International Youth Work (DNK).
Youth7 priorities
This year’s Y7 summit took place in Berlin from 16 to 20 May, with the following priority topics currently planned:
- Sustainable and green planet
- Economic transformation for common progress
- Resilient democracies
- Global health and solidarity
For topical reasons, a fifth priority is “youth, peace and security”.
In addition, two cross-cutting themes have been identified: gender and intergenerational justice.