National Youth Council, complementary pension portal presented

The General Assembly of the National Youth Council (CNG) was held in Rome. The two-day event, which marked the first plenary assembly of the new presidency led by Edoardo Italia, represented a crucial moment of connection between youth representatives and the government for the definition of public policies aimed at the over ten million Italians between the ages of 18 and 35.

At the centre of the work, the work-pension binomial, with the launch of the new information portal on the supplementary pension scheme dedicated to young people and developed by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies in cooperation with CNG. The platform, which will be online soon, represents a single point of access to promote adherence to supplementary pensions and respond to a critical need: in a labour market characterised by discontinuous careers and average wages in the private sector of around 15,600 euro per year, financial awareness has become an indispensable pillar for future independence.

The central moment of the assembly was the confrontation between President Italia and the Minister for Sport and Youth, Andrea Abodi, who illustrated the pillars of the Ddl Giovani, the first delegated bill in Republican history entirely dedicated to the new generations. 'The Ddl Giovani is a historic measure that aims to reorganise the entire architecture of youth policies. We start with the simplification and amalgamation of the regulations, and then move on to the Universal Civil Service, which is now an extraordinary success with applications exceeding 100 per cent of the available places. A fundamental pillar is then the National Youth Card, which has already reached 3.7 million young people and over 170 partners: we want it to be not just a commercial tool, but a communication channel. We are working to make increasingly effective tools available to young people, and I hope that the CNG will contribute more and more with analyses, studies, and research that will allow us to guide public policies and assess their impact'.

"With this assembly we are not only asking to be heard, but to be authoritative interlocutors in the decision-making processes that determine our future," said the president of the National Youth Council, Edoardo Italia. 'The launch of the portal on complementary pensions is a concrete response to the precariousness and uncertainty affecting ten million young people in Italia. We cannot allow an entire generation to remain on the margins; our responsibility is to build today the foundations for their autonomy tomorrow, guaranteeing real instruments of participation and social protection'.

The Assembly's work also covered numerous other topics. These included the collaboration initiated with the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security, which has set up a consultation table with the CNG to promote the active participation of young people in national climate policies. Ample space was also dedicated to mental health, with a session on eating disorders on the occasion of Lilac Ribbon Month. There was also a discussion with Cassa Depositi e Prestiti and ASVIS on the topics of financial education and all-round sustainability, also in relation to generational impact assessment. The Assembly also appointed the coordinator of the General Assembly, Enrico Pulieri, and the deputy coordinator, Nicola Maria Maiello. The Assembly concluded with the presentation of the report 'National Youth Plan 2026' and the definition of the new strategic guidelines for the two-year period 2026/2027. The work will continue through the operational tables of the 13 thematic commissions, which will involve more than one hundred young people in the formulation of proposals on participation, work, environment and inclusion.