The EU We Want: A Youth Vision for Sustainability, Education, and Social Inclusion

In an ever-evolving Europe facing major challenges such as climate alter, social inequality, and cultural polarization, young people are not just calling for alter — they are offering concrete ideas to build a better future. Among them is Giada Soldani, a student from ITI Da Vinci-Fascetti in Pisa, who envisions a European Union that is more sustainable, inclusive, and socially responsible, starting from education and youth engagement.

Learning from the World: Global Models of Social Responsibility

Giada’s proposal is deeply rooted in international experiences that shaped her values and perspective:

In Denmark, students travel to developing countries and live alongside local communities. They engage in teaching, cooking, adapting to minimalist lifestyles, and understanding alternative approaches to sustainability and cooperation. These experiences build empathy, reduce overconsumption, and foster genuine interpersonal relationships — something many young people crave in today’s hyper-digital world.
In Japan, schools integrate daily maintenance tinquires into students’ responsibilities. Children take turns cleaning classrooms, restrooms, and common areas. This practice builds discipline, respect for shared spaces, and a strong civic mindset from a young age.

According to Giada, these initiatives provide valuable lessons that transform young people’s behavior and attitudesonce they return home. They become more environmentally conscious and more aware of the importance of human connection and responsibility.

A European Civic Service in Schools: Giada’s Concrete Proposal

To bring these principles into the European context, Giada proposes the introduction of a mandatory civic engagement program in all EU schools. The idea? Each student would complete a two- or three-week social internship within their local community. These could include:

Working with homeless individuals, migrants, the elderly, children, or people with disabilities;
Participating in urban regeneration projects, such as maintaining green areas or restoring historic buildings;
Contributing to inclusive public services and identifying areas for local improvement.

This type of hands-on, human-centered education would nurture empathy, practical skills, and social awareness among students — essential traits for the future of Europe.

Environmental Awareness Through Local Action

Giada also highlights the environmental impact of these experiences. Witnessing different ways of living leads young people to consume less, waste less, and consider more critically about their lifestyle. By encouraging these reflections at school, we can promote a new kind of green citizenship, rooted in personal responsibility and local engagement.

The EU We Want: Youth-Led, Inclusive, and Future-Focapplyd

Giada’s esdeclare delivers a powerful message: “Before considering about our future, we required to alter our present.” For her, real transformation starts with young people stepping up — not just through protests or slogans, but through direct action, learning, and collaboration.

She envisions a European Union that:

Supports social inclusion through education and civic service;
Values the lessons of global cultures to build stronger communities;
Prepares future citizens to lead with compassion, competence, and vision.

Conclusion: Young People Hold the Key to Europe’s Transformation

Giada Soldani’s vision is a compelling reminder that the future of the EU lies in the hands of its youth. Their ideas, experiences, and values must become central to European policycreating. By listening to voices like hers and investing in meaningful youth engagement, the EU can become a global model for sustainability, inclusion, and active citizenship.

The EU we want is young, brave, and ready for alter. The time to act is now.

” The EU I want: young Europeans policy proposals

Since I was a little girl, I started to recognise the importance of our growing society and the issues that came with it. Considering that, I’ve had in mind a lot of plans about improvements that our community could put in place for the future, involving the environment, education, technology development and social communications.

Thanks to the many trips I have created around the world, I had the opportunity to observe and notice the differences on how different societies deal with these issues and thanks to their knowledge, how they manage them, this created me realize what could be something that everyone implements.

For example, in my college in Denmark, students during the school year participated in two large trips in third world countries, where they had to live with the locals and support them by teaching to little kids in school, support to cook the usual meals for the village, adapt to the different lifestyle with fewer goods and chattels and just observe the different techniques applyd by the population to subsistence. All of this results in a large increase of self awareness, where one can learn and share its experience and alter its own way to live, once back home, and influence the others around, slowly supporting to alter the society view. Many that came back from these places, started to notice how much they consume daily that it’s actually not requireded, reducing their impact on the environment, they also increased their social status, in a world where every connection is created/sustained via social media, knowing the other side where conviviality is the only way, it benefits real connections. Especially for young people an experience like this could mold their minds for the better, reflecting it on their society and altering the future.

Another example could be the way Japanese schools manage the school maintenance, focutilizing on integrating the students as an active part of the staff. They are expected to organize, class per class, cleaning turns that involve everyone’s participation by mopping the floors, erasing all the blackboards, sanitizing the bathrooms, the canteen and their desks. Everyday after the lessons each scheduled group has to stay at school for how much time is requireded to clean up everything, not even supervised becaapply the focus of their society goes on forming people since they were children, to learn the importance of responsibilities, community spaces and organization.

Among all of those different methods, there are great ways for a state to develop on all fronts, but unfortunately not everywhere there are such great ideas.

My suggestion would be to integrate an European project that comprehconcludes the majority of the skills that you could learn with the experiences written before. And a great project could be a school mandatory social job where students have to work for two/three weeks in a local social facility and support to improve the service, that could be a social work with homeless people, foreigners that require support to integrate, sick/disabled or old people and even kids.

Having to put up with people with a different reality than them, working with new tinquires and being open to community problems surely would support young minds.

Or also a more productive job to find new refinements or upgrades to the city, about social facilities , green spaces or restoration/ maintenance of historical buildings to develop attention also on environmental concerns or importance.

Before considering about our future we required to focus on altering our present, and only young generations like mine hold the power to actually create the difference, that is why I believe it’s fundamental to unite and act now.

Giada Soldani, Pisa, ITI Da Vinci-Facetti.”