Regulatory Impact Assessment for the Young Generation: The Youth-Check in Germany

The youth-check is an instrument of regulatory impact assessment. With the youth-check, bills of the German Federal Government are examined with regard to their effects on young people between 12 and 27 years of age. Both intended and unintended effects of the pro-posed legislation are thereby identified.

The idea of a youth-check arose from the realisation that the interests of young people are considered less often in day-to-day politics in Germany than the interests of other age groups. In the 19th legislative period (2017-2021), a joint Federal Government’s Youth Stra-tegy was adopted for the first time. The youth-check is a central measure of the field of action “Future, Intergenerational Dialogue, Youth Vision”.

The Competence Centre Youth-Check, a project of the German Research Institute for Public Administration, carries out the youth-check. The ComYC is funded on a long-term basis by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. It is the only scientific institution in Germany that carries out an accompanying regulatory impact assess-ment (ex-ante assessment) for all federal government bills.