The relevance of a strong EU presence for the youth of Northern Ireland

By Sam Law, Katie Murphy, Feresha Bayramova.

Having decided to approach this article through a peculiarly Northern Irish perspective, we, the reporters for the Northern Ireland constituency, managed to contact at short notice Stephen Agnew of the Northern Ireland Green Party, a key Northern Irish minister on panels for youth development and young people.

In considering the importance of a strong EU presence for the young people of Northern Ireland, Mr Agnew took the strong and approach that while an EU mandate may only have a limited reach regarding young people and youth issues such as the discrimination against those wearing "GAA and hooded tops," the very presence of youthful ministers could help prevent the "tarring [of the youth] with the same brush." "We seem to be blamed for anti-social behaviour as if it doesn't exist in older people." Pointing to the good work often done by the young people of the community, he seemed to show particular disdain for some of the older and often more closed-minded MPs who have traditionally dominated the EU and local elections. "We seem to be blamed for anti-social behaviour as if it doesn't exist in older people."

This is a notoriously prickly issue in Northern Ireland, where too often work in youth projects is diverted towards cross-community operations rather than those dedicated to understanding and dealing with more traditional youth issues. Mr Agnew's apparent concern that the progress made as of late could come at the cost of the "vital" need for enthusiastic and energetic youth involvement looks set to become more and more relevant. Mr Agnew, who is involved in work with the homeless in Northern Ireland, commented that Europe is best served to show that "it is a right, not a privilege, that people should have a home." Whether his liberal but undeniably agreeable agenda (from the youth perspective) will reach the European stage will be decided at the start of June.