About forty guests from 35 Permanent representations and diplomatic missions met on Monday 16 January at the European Youth Centre Strasbourg (EYCS) where they were greeted by Matjaž Gruden, Director of Democratic Participation, and Antje Rothemund, Head of the Youth Department.

The information session was an opportunity for diplomats to discover the Council of Europe Youth sector’s policies, activities and instruments, their impact in the member States, as well as to exchange views on the crucial importance of the participation of young people in democratic and decision-making processes, in particular in contributing to the 4th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe.  The chairs and vice-chairs of the youth sector statutory committees together with staff of the Youth Department presented the information and answered questions.

At a time when member States are increasingly seeing youth as a priority for the Council of Europe, as seen by the last 10 ''Committee of Ministers' presidency programmes'', the guests expressed their appreciation for this opportunity to find out more about the Organisation’s 50-year long commitment to young people and youth policy.

The Bureaux of the European Steering Committee for Youth (CDEJ) and of the Advisory Council on Youth (CCJ) held their first meetings of the year in the European Youth Centre Strasbourg on 16 and 17 January 2023.

The Bureaux were informed about the priorities of the Icelandic presidency of the Committee of Ministers by Sandra Lyngdorf, Deputy to the Permanent Representative of Iceland to the Council of Europe.  Iceland put youth amongst its presidency's priorities and invited the Advisory Council on Youth to contribute its vision for the Council of Europe as part of the preparations for the 4th Summit of Heads of State and Government in Reykjavik on 16-17 May 2023.

The Bureaux discussed the projects to be implemented in 2023 in accordance with the Joint Council on Youth (CMJ) terms of reference and was informed about the timeline for the call for applications for the Advisory Council on Youth 2024-25 term of office, to be launched in the spring.

The Bureaux adopted the draft agenda of the 48th CMJ meeting which will take place on 14-15 March 2023. Amongst the issues to be discussed feature the progress in the preparation of a draft recommendation on climate crisis, young people and democracy, of guidelines on young people’s participation in public life, as well as the review of Committee of Ministers Recommendation CM/Rec(2017)4 on youth work.

Finally, the manager of the partnership between the European Commission and the Council of Europe in the field of youth explained the consultations that will be held to prepare the workplan for 2024-25.

The consultative meeting brought together 35 experts in peace education, peacebuilding and conflict transformation to review and renew key contents and approaches to peace education in the intercultural youth activities of the Council of Europe, be them organised at the European Youth Centres or supported by the European Youth Foundation.

Building peaceful and inclusive societies is one of the priorities of the 2030 Strategy of the youth sector and of the Youth for Democracy programme and includes objectives such as strengthening young people’s capacities, to prevent violence, transform conflict and to build a culture of peace.

The conclusions and proposals of the meeting include a strengthening of peace education in the medium-long term, based on a shared understanding of peace education as knowledge, skills and attitudes for a culture of peace and non-violence based on human rights. 

The meeting was organised in cooperation with the European Youth Foundation.

The third meeting of the Steering Group took place on 25-26 January 2023, Brussels, Belgium. Following up on the results of its previous meeting in July 2022, this occasion gave space to further strategic discussions about the coordination of the implementation of the EYWA. 

Updates about the progress of ongoing research projects, including mapping studies on youth work ecosystems and models of recognition, as well as the review process of the Council of Europe’s Youth Work Recommendation were also to be presented and discussed.

With several ongoing initiatives around the EYWA, the meeting remains essential to ensure complementarity and coordination of various initiatives by the partner institutions and actors. Regarding practical preparations of upcoming activities, the Youth Partnership’s Symposium dedicated to the European meeting of the youth work community of practice (31 May-2 June 2023) also started, and first ideas about the foreseen 4th European Youth Work Convention in 2025 were exchanged.

Young people in Georgia need to know more about their social rights, and youth workers have a key role to play in raising their awareness. In this project, the youth organisation Umbrella carried out capacity building activities, information initiatives and partnership building actions to connect young people, youth workers, business representatives and local authorities regarding the promotion and protection of young people’s social rights.

“The innovation of this project is about linking young people closer to the local government and the businesses”, mentioned the project coordinator Slava Mezhdyan. “The project led to businesses supporting the activities of youth centres as part of their corporate social responsibility, which is something very new in Georgia”. The project allowed for the translation of a Council of Europe youth sector tool, the educational game “Enter Dignityland” on access to social rights, and the creation of other information tools adapted to the Georgian context.

On 21 December 2022, the Council of Europe launched the project “Citizenship and human rights education with young people in Serbia” in a high-level event bringing together key stakeholders in the field. The event took place in the Ecological Centre Radulovački (in Sremski Karlovci) holder of the Council of Europe Quality Label for Youth Centres.

With key activities foreseen in 2023, the project aims to strengthen opportunities for young people to access quality citizenship and human rights education. Compass, the manual for human rights education with young people, will be translated into Serbian and will be at the core of the project which features training courses for trainers and youth workers.

The meeting was attended by H.E. Cathy Buggenhout, Ambassador of Belgium to Serbia, Husein Memić, Minister of Tourism and Youth of Serbia, Tobias Flessenkemper, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Belgrade and Nedeljka Ivošević from the National Association of Youth Workers, who is also member of the Bureau of the Advisory Council on Youth.

They converged on the need to provide opportunities for systematic education on human rights for youth workers in Serbia. The project is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belgium and the Council of Europe.

ARTE and its European partners, with the support of the Council of Europe, launched the "Generation Ukraine" project aimed to provide support to Ukrainian documentary filmmakers. 12 documentary film projects directed and produced by Ukrainian teams and describing the impact of the Russian aggression have been selected under the project. The films will be broadcast in 2024 on air or on ARTE.

23 documentary film producers from Ukraine took part in the workshop on 10-11 January 2023 at the European Youth Centre in Strasbourg. The filmmakers presented their projects and discussed them with representatives of ARTE and other international film producers.

Patrick Penninckx, Head of the Information Society Department of the Council of Europe informed the participants about the support to the media sector in Ukraine under the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine for 2023-2026. 

Markus Lehner from Eurimages, the Council of Europe cultural support fund, explained to the participants which opportunities for the Ukrainian filmmakers exist under its support schemes.

Through co-productions, pre-purchases or purchases, the documentaries supported under the project will be financed by ARTE GEIE, ARTE France and ARTE Deutschland, up to around one million euros, in co-operation with the channel's European partners.

The annual report of activities 2022 of the Partial Agreement on Youth Mobility through the Youth Card is now available.

Having in mind the priorities for the 2021-2022 programme of activities of the Council of Europe’s Youth Sector youth mobility remains an important tool for achieving these objectives.

The proposed specific aims for the PA work programme 2022 were to:

- Reinforce trust of young people in pluralistic democracies, with a focus on capacity building for youth organisations and public institutions to work together to advance youth civic engagement;
- Explore how the European Youth Card, as a youth mobility tool, can support opportunities for disadvantaged young people (in particular Roma youth and refugees) and build intercultural skills for all youth;
- Explore the role that European Youth Card can have in advancing synergies on youth work policies and contribute to the European youth work agenda.

The grant agreement for 2023 between the Council of Europe and the European Youth Card Association (EYCA) has just been signed. It is aimed at the implementation of the current year’s work programme of the Partial Agreement on Youth Mobility through the Youth Card in line with the priorities 2022-25 of the Council of Europe youth sector. 

The proposed aims for the Partial Agreement work programme in 2023 are:

- to support and empower young people to actively shape their communities by getting involved in decision making processes;
- to explore how the European Youth Card (EYC), as a youth mobility tool, can foster sustainability and align with SDGs;
- to explore the role that European Youth Card-EYC) can have in fostering intergovernmental co-operation on youth policy.

Covid-19 Knowledge Hub:

• The impact of Covid-19 on the youth sector and relevance of the EU recovery and resilience plans, briefing by James O’Donovan and Sladjana Petkovic
• Covid-19 impact on youth participation and youth spaces, by Tomaž Deželan
• The impact of Covid-19 on young people and the youth sector in South-East Europe, by Ivana Bošković, Lutjona Lula and Özgehan Şenyuva
• The effects of Covid-19 on young people’s mental health and psychological well-being. An updated literature review, by Stefanos Mastrotheodoros and Mette Ranta, and the related infographic
• Youth services during the Covid-19 pandemic – a patchy net in need of investment, by Dunja Potočnik and Ruzanna Ivanian and the related podcast episode and infographic

• New podcast episode on the Visible Value seminar with guests Zara Lavchyan and Dragan Atanasov, rapporteurs.
• The Essentials of Youth Work online course is back with updated content and a self-directed format. Join the course today and explore answers to these questions and many more.
• Read the report and see the presentations of the EU-Council of Europe Youth Partnership’s Perspectives on Youth seminar.