The City Council will promote youth participation through a specific commission within the future Citizen Participation Council

The Councillor for Citizen Participation of the Torrevieja City Council, Trudy Páez, has positively assessed the initiative presented in the plenary session held yesterday for the creation of the Municipal Youth Council, highlighting the importance of giving a voice to young people and facilitating their real and organized participation in the public life of the city.

The Department of Citizen Participation fully shares the need to create stable spaces for dialogue between youth and the City Council, arguing that youth participation must have continuity, structure and permanent channels, beyond specific actions or isolated activities.

In this regard, Páez stressed that the current context requires public administrations to open more spaces for listening, especially given the growing disconnection of young people from politics and the public sphere, and to promote real mechanisms for dialogue and participation.

However, the councilor explained that municipal experience has shown that the number of formally constituted youth associations with continuous activity in Torrevieja has been limited, which makes it difficult to immediately create a Youth Council with a solid, representative and operational base.

A PARTIAL AMENDMENT FROM THE POPULAR GROUP THAT STRENGTHENS AND MAKES VIABLE THE SUEÑA TORREVIEJA MOTION

Therefore, the Popular Municipal Group has proposed a partial amendment to the motion, which does not replace the initial proposal, but reinforces it and makes it viable, incorporating a preliminary step within the future Citizen Participation Council: the creation of a specific youth commission.

This commission will make it possible to identify and locate existing youth entities, give a voice to young people who are part of cultural, sports, social or neighborhood associations, and actively promote youth associationism from the departments of Citizen Participation and Youth.

Furthermore, the City Council is already working on the implementation of the Citizen Participation Council as a general body that will structure the participation of the different social sectors of the municipality, constituting an appropriate framework to progressively strengthen youth participation.

The approved amendment stipulates that, as a temporary measure to the creation of the Municipal Youth Council, this specific section will be promoted within the Citizen Participation Council, thus generating a real basis that will allow, when there is a sufficient associative fabric, the constitution of a strong, representative Youth Council with continuity over time.

Trudy Páez expressed her gratitude for the acceptance of the amendment, emphasizing that "it demonstrates that we are not facing a confrontation, but rather a shared desire to improve youth participation in our city."

From the Department of Citizen Participation, the commitment is to launch the Citizen Participation Council shortly and work from the outset to ensure that the youth of Torrevieja have their own active and permanent space for listening, dialogue and participation within municipal life.