This was the main message of the ECR Group during a CoR plenary debate on EU elections and youth engagement. 

On the topic of mobilising young people ahead of the EU elections, Juan García-Gallardo Frings, Vice-President of Castilla y León in Spain, emphasised the need for the EU institutions to pay more attention to the real problems of young people such as "security, control of borders and social peace in their neighbourhoods".

Lorenzo Galligani, Member of Pistoia Municipal Council in Italy, pointed to the large-scale farmer protests around Europe and underlined the need to listen to various voices: "We should be supporting those youth who want to start a family and set up new companies to generate wealth for our communities, and we need to pay more attention to the demographic winter because if we don't, there will be no Europe left to defend."

Maicol Busilacchi of the European Young Conservatives highlighted that the lack of economic opportunity represents one of "the primary concerns of young people". Mr Busilacchi also emphasised the importance of promoting an "entrepreneurial spirit and a culture of innovation, which will not drive only long-term economic growth but will also contribute to developing a sense of responsibility, leadership and self-reliance among the youth."

Finally, the ECR Group's Young Elected Politician (YEP) programme member and City Councillor of Powiat Bielsk Podlaski in Poland, Agata Puchalska, stressed the "increased cost of living and energy, and the basic sense of security resulting from illegal immigration" as concerns of young people. "We see too many top-down, ideology-driven proposals that do not give us answers to our real problems."