The following article will be published in a special issue about ThinkYoung at the November-December edition of the European Business Review.

Youth challenging the systems of the world

The year 2011 is a year full of motivated youth movements across the world. The recent Wall Street occupiers, the indignados in Spain or the Arab spring revolutions are carried out by the motivation of many young people who want to raise awareness about the failure of their respective systems. But is there anything these movements can do to join forces in their common goals, if they have any?

In North Africa, particularly in Tunisia and Egypt, uprisings caused the fall of authoritarian regimes that had been in place for decades. One step ahead than their peers in Europe, these young people now face the challenge to make their claims come true. The idea of democracy and what it means has to find its way into the heads of societies that have previously been oppressed for their entire lives. However, no one builds a democratic system from one day to another. It took countries in Europe one hundred years to develop the system we have now. And even today, it is an ongoing process shifting constantly from liberal to conservative, from left to right, from europeanisation to euroscepticism, and from nationalistic to europeanisitic.  

The current financial crisis, the ongoing debate about the future of the PIGS countries and the way politicians act to save them from bankruptcy seem to move Europe away from democracy. Since the fall of the Berlin wall, the marriage between capitalism and democracy reigned over the western civilization. However, one has to question if there is a balance between the two, or did capitalism took power over democracy? That is what youngsters in Europe fear and what they are upset about in a way they do not even know how to articulate. It is the inequality for job opportunities, corruption, undemocratic electoral systems and ignoring the demands of the people, what brings young people on the streets and what makes them get angry, which sadly sometimes results in violence. This does not sound so unfamiliar looking back to the broadcasting news from the Arab spring.  

Northern African states reacted violently towards their protesters, but what is the European Union doing regarding it's youth protests? It mainly seems to be ignoring them, while they supported the protests in the Arab countries. But even more interesting than this apparent contradiction is the one that the EU has had with the Governments of those protesters they supported.

The European Union has had long lasting relationships with the governments of Northern African states, beginning from the European Mediterranean Partnership towards the European Neighborhood Policy and the Mediterranean Union. The EU also provided funds for the European Neighborhood instruments to strengthen democracy, stability and economic growth in the Maghreb region, with the Tunisian State being one of the role models for economic growth and development. Nevertheless, the union had a Janus-faced position towards the Maghreb region.  

On the one hand, the goal was to strengthen democratic developments by supporting NGOs and reinforce democracy in the existing governments. On the other hand, the need for stability and keeping the status quo of the states was also important in order to suppress radical Islamic groups and terrorism. Furthermore, the help granted by Europe, particularly concerning democratic development, was not asked for by the authoritarian regimes in place. Europe appeared to behave condescending and arrogant and perceived itself as more developed and something better.  Instead of listening and understanding the social and cultural differences, Europe tried to implement European values, shaped by Christianity on a society which has a completely different history, religion and culture.  

Blinded by the enlargement policy which successfully integrated the new member states in the European Union, EU officials tried to use the same method in the European Neighborhood policy. Tunisia seemed to be the country best developing according to the action plan designed by the European Union to gain a free trade area with the EU by the end of 2010. However, instead of stabilizing the country, its government was the first to fall. Tunisia first started the Arab uprisings, even though the society is one of the wealthiest and best educated in the region. Maybe, this was exactly the reason why it started there, since a lot of young, educated people were frustrated about the suppression and youth unemployment. The impressing speed of these developments, from the fall of the Tunisian President Ben Ali in January 2011, until the first free elections in late October 2011, is provoking curiosity regarding where this country will go to in the next few years.  

Enhancing the dialogue between young people from the North African countries and Europe is probably the first step into the right direction in order to ensure mutual understanding in the future between the future leaders of both continents, efficient cooperation and building new forms of democracy together while respecting each other's cultures, societies, histories and religions better without one looking down on the other.

Stephanie Harfensteller is a Project Manager and writer at ThinkYoung.

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