With the 2024 European elections around the corner, the Grassroots View is looking at the hopes and concerns of three groups whose voices are often neglected by policymakers: people with disabilities, senior citizens and young people.
We checked in with Milan Šveřepa, president of Inclusion Europe, to see if anything had changed on the accessibility front since 2019, when millions of Europeans were barred from voting due to intellectual disabilities or were prevented from going to the polls simply because the polling stations could not accommodate their physical disability.
We asked youth activist and influencer Nina Skočak whether she thought the voting age should be lowered to 16 and what was at stake for young people in this election.
We wanted to hear from Heidrun Mollenkopf, the president of AGE Platform, which advocates for senior citizens, about whether older people felt included in election debates or rather dismissed and written off by politicians.
And we asked the EESC’s vice-president for communication, Laurențiu Plosceanu, what the EESC does to keep amplifying the voices of civil society, making sure that the more vulnerable do not get side-lined or marginalised.
Enjoy our podcast, use your vote and speak up for yourself, shape up the Europe you want!