3. Estonian National Youth Council (ENL)
• Eesti Noorteühenduste Liit (ENL) is a
umbrella organization connecting
– 43 youth organizations
– 15 county youth councils
– 70 local youth councils
• ENL was established in 2002
• ENL is a member of the European Youth
Forum and the Network of Estonian Non-
Profit Organizations
4. What we do
Youth politics:
- All young people should be accepted as equally important
parts of society
- Politicians must consider young people’s needs in
legislation
- Political platform by ENL before elections
Vote@16:
- Young people from 16 should be allowed to vote in local
elections
5. Quick Note – let’s bring the 90’s back!
During the Estonian
Congress elections in 1990,
the voting age was already
set at 16 in Estonia. This
practice was unfortunately
not maintained for any
future elections and there is
no good data available from
that period.
6. Age limits in Estonia in general
- Criminal responsibility – 14
- Age of Consent – 14
- Marriage with parents agreement – 15
- Contracted work – 7
- Mandatory education – primary school or until 17
- First driving license – 16
- Registered for conscription – 16
- Right to petition - 16
- Required to pay taxes – birth!
- etc
7. Vote@16 and ENL
First statement by ENL:
• 17.11.2007 the GA adopted ENL’s position
paper on youth participation, including the
provision supporting vote@16 for local
elections
– Main reasoning from that paper: demographic change,
active discussions globally, already existing positive
examples, natural development of Estonian youth
policy
– In 2007 it would have impacted 40 000 young people,
meaning 3% of the population and 4% of the
electorate.
8. Vote@16 and ENL
Before lowering the voting age:
• Make youth inclusion mandatory via the Youth
Act
• Establish a more advanced civil studies
programme in schools
• Start actively developing local and regional
youth councils
9. Current arguments for vote@16
• Democratic principles
• Citizenship education
• Preventing social and political
withdrawal
• Readiness
• Good examples elsewhere
10. Common arguments against vote@16
• Not mature enough
• Lack of political interest
• There other ways to participate
• Can we really compare with other
countries?
• Public opinion is still against vote@16
• Political influence in schools, etc
• Youth leaning towards extremes
• Youth Councils are still weak
11. Activities related to vote@16
• League of Young Voters
• Shadow Elections
• Development of Youth Councils
• Seminars, Conferences
• Research
12. Latest developments
• Discussing vote@16 was included in
the national coalitions platform in
2011
• However left out when the coalition
changed in March 2014
… however.
13. Latest developments
Since both the governing Social
Democratic Party and Reform Party in
principal agree with lowering the voting
to 16 for local elections a parliamentary
draft bill was introduced on the 1st of
July by 21 MPs from SDP and REF.
The bill passed the 1st Parliamentary
Reading on the 16th of September 2014,
amendments can be submitted by the
16th of October 2014.
14. Latest developments
Proposing vote@16 for local elections,
starting with 2017, the change would
affect around 20 000 16-17 year olds
(1.9% of the total population and 2.3%
of the total voting age population after
the change).
Both this and the next Parliament must
pass the bill for it to become a
constitutional amendment.
15. Thank you!
www.enl.ee
www.facebook.com/ENLiit
gerd@gerdtarand.eu / gerdtarand.eu /
twitter / facebook / Instagram
– and all that…
Editor's Notes
2008. aastal maksid noored vanuses 16-17 riigile 37 miljonit krooni makse.
2006. aastal oli statistikaandmete kohaselt Eestis 16-17 aastaseid noori 42 339, kellest deklareeris sotsiaalmaksu 11 179, so üks neljandik.
ICCS 2009, OECD, latest impact and readiness studies
