Principles

EFAy supports the rights of national and ethnic minority communities, especially those who face discrimination and policies aimed at weakening their rights. We believe in strengthening the European Judicial System to further enable it to protect Europe’s minority communities and strengthen their legal rights.

We work to empower young people to work together to stand up and protect the rights of national and ethnic minority groups across Europe. Through events, meetings and discussions we enable young people to share ideas and debate different situations and points of view from across the continent.

EFAy defends stateless nations and minorities around the world, as well as understanding international relationships from the values of solidarity, internationalism and respect. Our continent is, nevertheless, Europe, and we defend the need for regenerating Europe in having a more transparent and democratic European Union. We subscribe to the view of a ‘Europe of the Peoples’ and not a Europe of states. We believe that each identity is equally valid and each nation-region-country has equal rights.

Our aim therefore is to achieve official recognition and acceptance of all Europe’s different national identities. Each territorial entity should be allowed to develop its own opportunities and be given equal means to develop these opportunities, so that policies can be implemented at all levels.

EFAy believes in an equal society. We are feminists, we believe in gender equality and we are for a woman’s right to choose. We strongly support the LGBTQIA+ community by campaigning for an end to political & societal homophobia and transphobia. We believe that every gender identity is valid and want to help build a society where acceptance is the norm.

We strive for the rights and an acceptance of everyone in society no matter who they are, where they’re from, which language they speak, who they love or how they identify. We use our events to embolden and encourage young people to work towards this core aim which goes hand in hand with our work for self-determination, language rights and minority rights.

We are firm defenders of human rights and believe in welcoming refugees. We condemn the anti-refugee rhetoric littering our politics and believe it’s Europe’s responsibility to care and settle refugees. We believe in a strong European judicial system which protects all minority rights living in nation states. We are antiracist and antifascist, and empower young people to stand up to racism and fascism. We believe in strengthening policies defending & protecting human rights and tough sanctions for states which contravene them.

We believe in publicly run health, social care and education services for the people’s benefit and not for profit. We support Universal Basic Income as a way to support all peoples by removing financial uncertainty and allowing them to live better lives.

We believe in a Europe for future generations. Faced with the climate crisis, the only possible future is a green and sustainable future. We support policies which promote green transport, reduce air pollution, and allow people to live in cleaner, safer communities. We support a sustainable tourism model where dialogues with communities are constant, this means strict regulation of holiday homes, cruise ships and other key issues.

We support the strikes for the climate and use our events and activities to support and promote environmentalism, sustainable communities both rural and urban, eco-friendly transport, clean air, and protecting our waterways and oceans.