Youth Participation in European Policymaking: Representation and Limits to Participation

Abstract

Since the onset of the 2008 financial crisis, and the subsequent problems with the Eurozone, the EU has been undergoing a crisis of legitimacy. While the roots of this crisis are economic, the history and form of the single currency project means that the consequences are profoundly political. As Marsh (2013: 15) has argued, ‘the Euro house was assembled from the roof downwards […] the builders planned to re-enforce the foundations later on’. This meant that the Eurozone lacked the necessary political institutions to respond to the financial crisis and cope with the conflicts that it generated. Furthermore, it also lacked the necessary consensus required to legitimise the creation of such institutions at the moment when they were most required.