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DG Democracy
Directorate of Democratic Participation
Youth Department
THINK YOUTH No 72 - July-August 2019
Enter Youth Week participants during a session in the hemicycle at the Palais
ENTER ! Youth Week – Nos droits, notre vie
From 7 to 12 July, over 300 young people and youth workers gathered in Strasbourg to take part in the "Enter! Youth Week in order to review the implementation of the Enter! recommendation by the member states and other partners. The Week was also an example of young people’s participation in the Council of Europe’s mission and work.

The event was organised on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Council of Europe with the support of the City of Strasbourg, the French Ministry of Education and Youth and the European Youth Forum, in the framework of the French Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers.

Message of the Enter! Youth Week and Photo Gallery of the event
Youth policy advisory mission to Armenia
From 16 to 18 July 2019, a Council of Europe delegation visited Armenia to provide advice to the authorities on the national youth strategy.
In Yerevan and Gyumri, the delegation met several key stakeholders and representatives of organisations involved in the development and implementation of the national youth strategy. It also met some high-level representatives, including: the Deputy Minister responsible for youth matters (Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport); the Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Affairs; the mayor of the city of Gyumri; the governor of the Shirak province. 
Organised at the request of the national authorities of Armenia, this mission provided practical advice on the revision of the national youth strategy, in line with the Council of Europe's standards in the field of youth. The main findings and recommendations of the advisory mission will be summarised in a report to be submitted shortly to the national authorities.
10th European Platform of Youth Centres
On 18-19 June representatives of youth centres holding the Council of Europe Quality Label for youth centres, as well as youth centres aspiring to its acquisition, gathered in the European Youth Centre Budapest for their annual European Platform meeting, which is also celebrating its 10th anniversary.
21 youth centres from 15 member states were represented
6 and 7 June 2019, European Youth Centre Strasbourg
Joint meeting of the CDEJ and Advisory Council Bureaux
The Bureaux of the CDEJ and of the Advisory Council exchanged views with Snežana Samardžić-Marković, Director General of Democracy, on the situation of
of the youth sector, and with Matjaz Gruden, Director of Democratic Participation on future perspectives and activities, especially the draft Council Europe youth sector strategy 2030.The Bureaux also approved the agendas of the upcoming plenary meetings of the co-managed youth statutory bodies (Strasbourg, 14-16 October 2019).
After a thorough discussion, the Bureaux agreed to propose two possible subjects for the CMJ’s next thematic debate (March 2020): either “Climate change and global governance”, or “Revitalising democracy”.
Council of Europe youth sector strategy 2030 – third meeting of the drafting group
Following the CMJ’s endorsement of the strategy’s general approach and of its four thematic priorities (“revitalising pluralistic democracy”; “access to rights”; “living together in peaceful and inclusive societies”; and “youth work”) last March,
4 and 5 June 2019, European Youth Centre Strasbourg
the drafting group met again to finalise the draft background document. It also endorsed a draft Committee of Ministers’ resolution.
This short document will – if adopted – form the legal and political basis for the implementation of the Council of Europe youth sector strategy 2030. These documents will be submitted to the 41st CMJ meeting later in the year (15-16 October 2019, Strasbourg) for agreement before submission to the Committee of Ministers for adoption.
HREload and launch of Compass in Italian
National training course on human rights education in Italy

From 24 to 28 June in Turin, Italy “HREload”, an advanced-level national training course in the field of Human Rights Education (HRE) was held.
The course was promoted by a multi-stakeholder co-operation network of national partners: it was led by APICE - Agenzia di Promozione Integrata per i Cittadini in Europa, supported by the Youth Department of the Council of Europe, co-funded by Global Campaign for Education and implemented in co-operation with the City of Turin. 
On 27 June, the Italian version of COMPASS was launched
Study visit of Ukrainian youth leaders
The study visit of youth experts and young leaders from Ukraine to the Council of Europe (EYCS, 15-20 June) focused on exploring the Organisation's work in the youth policy field.
The participants were acquainted with the standards and texts on youth policy and youth work, the competencies for a culture of democracy and discussed how young people can contribute to building a democratic and inclusive society in Ukraine.This activity is part of the 2019 programme of activities of the Framework Programme on co-operation between the Council of Europe and the Ministry of Youth and Sport of Ukraine and was co-organised by the Ukrainian Leadership Academy.
Participants in the training seminar
“Together Have Your Say: “50-50” training seminar in Ukraine
This seminar was organised for specialists from national and local authorities
working with young people together with representatives of youth non-governmental organisations from 27-31 May in the Dnipro region of Ukraine. The training aimed at developing competencies for monitoring and evaluating youth policy and youth work at different levels, in order to increase the quality of youth policy in Ukraine according to Council of Europe standards.
The Council of Europe “Self-assessment tool for youth policy” was translated into Ukrainian and used by the participants to assess current strategic documents related to youth policy in Ukraine.
2019 COMPASS National Training Course on Human Rights Education in Lithuania
From 9 to 14 of July in Antaljepte, Lithuania, NSII - Nacionalinis Socialinės Integracijos Institutas organised the 2019
COMPASS National Training Course on Human Rights Education “Make a change: promote and protect Human Rights”. 
The training course is part of the Youth for Democracy programme – Human Rights Education Youth Programme; its aim was to contribute, through the use of COMPASS, to the creation of a network of human rights educators in Lithuania. Twenty-six youth workers/leaders and formal education educators took part in the course, learning in particular how to address human rights violations and the action to take in these situations.
Partnership annual meetings and first regional forum
On 19-21 June in Novi Sad, Serbia were held the Annual meetings of the national correspondents of the European Knowledge Centre on Youth Policy (EKCYP) and of the Pool of European Youth Researchers (PEYR) as well as the first regional youth knowledge forum on youth research in South-East Europe. 
Meeting of Multipliers for Quality in Learning Mobility
Following the recent launch of 2 new tools to support quality in learning mobility projects in the youth field - the www.QualityMobility.app and the Handbook on Quality in Learning Mobility – the meeting held on 22-24 July at the European Youth Centre Budapest, aimed to create a network of Quality ambassadors (multipliers).
New publication
Coyote magazine #28 on European Youth(work) Training! The first batch of articles is online! Keep tuned for two more batches in September and November:
Celebrating Coyote magazine’s 20th anniversary this month
on 8-11 July the editorial  team gathered plenty of ideas for its next edition dedicated to the ENTER! topic.
The European Budapest Agora
The Budapest European Agora, a public forum bringing together 130 young Europeans and high-level European decision-makers took place on 10-14 July at the European Youth Centre Budapest. Speakers included former Italian Prime
The European Youth Centre in Budapest
Minister Enrico Letta; EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sports Tibor Navracsics; former President of the European Commission Romano Prodi; and Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni who addressed the participants on 12 July, and many others. Organised by Identity & Democracy, a pan-European civic initiative engaged in the promotion of European citizenship and values, the Agora aims at empowering citizens to create a better future for Europe and promoting the culture of dialogue and exchange.
Upcoming activities
  • 30 July -5 August, Krakow, Poland, Roma Genocide Remembrance Initiative
  • 4-8 August, Kaluga, Russian Federation, 10th Dialogue Camp
  •  12-14 and 16-18 August, European Youth Centre Budapest, two national training courses for trainers in human rights education and for teachers, organised in collaboration with EJHA (Hungarian network of human rights educators) 
  • 27-31 August, Moscow, Russian Federation, "Have Your Say!" - 50/50 training course on youth participation and youth policy
  • 31 August, Berlin, Germany, Quality Label Award Ceremony - wannseeFORUM Foundation
  • 18-20 September, European Youth Centre Strasbourg: Symposium "The future of young people’s political participation: questions, challenges and opportunities" 
Useful links
The CoE Directorate General Democracy
The CoE Youth Portal
European Youth Centre Budapest
European Youth Centre Strasbourg
European Youth Foundation
Intergovernmental Cooperation
The EU-CoE Youth Parthership
Facebook pages
Advisory Council on Youth
Council of Europe - Youth
European Youth Centre Budapest
EU-CoE youth partnership
European Youth Foundation
No Hate Speech Movement
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