The Braga Youth Conference is the largest gathering of young people and local authorities in 2025, anchoring youth perspectives in the Council of Europe’s local and regional democracy work. It will gather around 150 young people and local authorities from the 46 Council of Europe´s member states, who will work on the update of the European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life.

The conference is co-organised by the Council of Europe Youth Department and the Braga Youth Centre, and in partnership with the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, the Municipality of Braga, the Portuguese Institute for Sports and Youth and the European Youth Forum.

Experts in the youth work, youth policy, human rights education, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) met with the goal to explore how AI affects young people’s rights and to share insights on addressing its opportunities and challenges.

The consultative meeting "How Confident?... Artificial Intelligence, Young People and Youth Work" will guide the Council of Europe’s work on policy and standard-setting, and the overall programme of the Council of Europe’s Youth Department.

The significance for young people of the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law was underlined, as this groundbreaking, global legally binding instrument, ensures that AI aligns with principles of human rights, democracy, and the rule of law.

In parallel, from 26-31 January 2025, the training course “Youth advocacy for democracy and human rights” was held. It gathered 30 representatives of national youth councils, international youth organisations and networks and youth civil society, and was co-organised with the European Youth Forum and the German Federal Youth Council.

The training course developed the competences of youth civil society and young activists to advocate for human rights, democracy, ensuring a youth perspective in all the Council of Europe work, as well as advocating for the implementation and expansion of Council of Europe standards at national and local level.

One highlight of the course was the visit of Lord Hermer KC Richard Hermer, Attorney General for England and Wales, who discussed with participants about his responsibilities regarding human rights respect at national and international level, as well as challenges in this area. Furthermore, the participants exchanged with the Attorney General on the ways young people can advocate and co-operate with decision makers to advance their access and enjoyment of human rights.   

Following the 2023 Reykjavik Declaration, which called for greater youth participation in democratic life, the Joint Council on Youth Working Group on the Youth Perspective met at the European Youth Centre Strasbourg, on 21-22 January 2025, with the aim to advance a reference framework for integrating a youth perspective across the Council of Europe and its member States. The meeting also provided a platform for exchanging research and practices with independent youth experts from the Youth Partnership. They explored national and local approaches to youth mainstreaming and how youth perspective is used in policy making across Europe.

The Working Group consist of members of the Advisory Council on Youth (CCJ), the European Steering Committee for Youth (CDEJ) and the European Youth Forum.

The same week, both the CDEJ and the CCJ held their respective Bureau meeting, before meeting in a Joint Council format. This was a key preparatory step for the 52nd session on the Joint Council on Youth, planned on 7-9 April 2025 in Budapest. The Bureaux also reviewed the mid-term evaluation of the Youth Sector Strategy 2030, and considered the Coe-EU Youth Partnership workplan 2024-25.

Roma youth organisations and other stakeholders met in Strasbourg on 15 and 16 January in the first Coordination and Support Group to support participation, representation and inclusion of Roma young people.

The meeting was convened to monitor progress and co-ordinate efforts related  to Recommendation CM/Rec(2023)4 on Roma Youth Participation. I also served as a platform for the Task Force on Roma Youth Participation, an informal coordination mechanism established by the CMJ to foster collaboration between Roma and youth stakeholders. The results of the meeting will be presented to the Joint Council on Youth at its meeting in April 2025.

As part of its support measures, the EYF organises twice a year a meeting with international youth organisations in Brussels, Belgium, as a commitment to its partnership with youth organisations. The format of the learning and networking days for 2025 is new, and several changes are under development in the framework of the EYF reform. The event will focus both on reinforcing the partnership with the youth sector of the Council of Europe and provide opportunities for learning for youth organisations. 

To pre-register for the learning and networking days, international youth organisations and networks are invited to apply through this link  before 5 February 2025

In 2023 the Council of Europe and partners in Ukraine, developed the training programme on participatory youth policy and its training manual. 22 teachers from 11 regions of Ukraine improved their competences as trainers, prepared a series of videos of young people's participation practices and implemented the training programme at the regional and local levels. It included 21 programmes for 611 civil servants and local self-government officials in 2024. Additionally, trainers applied programme’s methodology in work with other groups, notably young people members of the youth council, students and volunteers in several oblasts of Ukraine. New training programmes are scheduled for 2025 in the Sumy, Rivne, and Chernihiv oblasts.

“The Beat Academy” was a pilot project organised by the PERSPEKTIVA Youth Centre in Durrës, Albania, and funded by the EYF in the framework of its pilot activity grants scheme in 2024. The overall aim of the project was to empower young people in Albania in becoming change makers by promoting social inclusion and dismantling stereotypes, prejudices and discrimination through the use of breakdance and other forms of street art/digital art.

25 young people engaged in combating and preventing gender stereotypes and roles, with special focus on marginalised groups. The Beat Academy reached out to more than 100 young people of different ages to produce posters and musical videos with the support of its partners The Beat Killers (dance school). The projects were supported by Tirana European Youth Capital, Matt Municipality, Youth Centre of Elbasan, and other public actors from Albania.