As explained on the EC Youth Portal:
"Make your voice heard! 2022 is the European Year of Youth, shining a light on the importance of European youth to build a better future – greener, more inclusive and digital."
Find more information on the Youth Portal - click here.
Mapping of activities that NAs are organising
Notes from the presentation on 24th March
[The PPT presentation can be found in the downloads at the bottom of the page]
This special focus for the year was announced in the State of the Union address, Sept 2021, by President Von Leyen. There was a fast-speed process for the legal decision and it was adopted by the end of 2021.
Responding to the needs and challenges brought about by COVID (mental health, unemployment, isolation, access to education etc), the aim is to celebrate our youth.
The DG EAC is coordinating the year, but there are 30+ units involved across many other parts of the EC. The aim is to include youth perspective in all policies, looking at how to engage and develop initiatives with and for young people.
Question: Will the TCA guidelines be more flexible for EYY?
TCA activities are focused on competence development of youth workers/adults, while EYY activities are more for young people.
- Youth work has a special mentioned place in the European Year of Youth. It comes under objective 2 (building capacity, especially for those working through youth work with ypwfo).
- TCA money can be used nationally. EYY is a different budget but also allows national activities.
- An EC colleague has written a proposed list of TCA activities that are relevant for the EYY. This list will be checked with the NAs, to see if the rules could be adjusted according to target group. If so, relevant activities could be replicated by others too.
- If you are in doubt about a specific activity, send an email to Natascha or Karen, who can confirm if it’s relevant under TCA/EYY.
Question: Why is inclusion merged together with employment? Employment is a small part of it, but inclusion is about giving people a voice, help them make their way to initiatives.
- It was at a more political level that they saw it relevant to bring these themes together, and the way it is presented. President Schmidt is responsible for both of those themes. We are aware that the policy areas are separate. In the voice area, and activity area (where you can add specific tags), it is separated.
Question: ID strategy for E+/ESC could be added there.
- The ID Strategy should be on the portal. Another batch of 30 initiatives will be published at the end of March, and the Strategy could be added too.
- A link will be added from the YOY site to the SALTO site for people to access the ID strategy.
- For information, the EC is launching a study on ‘opportunities for young people to participate in mobility activities for those living in rural /remote areas’. The first results should be ready by end of 2022.
- Under the new DiscoverEU Action, the ID Strategy is very prominent.
Question: Will there be any more budget/money to support young people with fewer opportunities to take part? A budget is needed for inclusion, so people can prepare activities, including any exceptional cost related to accessibility for venues, technical costs etc.
- It wasn’t possible to create any new action in E+/ESC because of time restraints, so existing budget lines were checked to see which ones could be reinforced.
- This aspect will be taken into account for the organised EYY events and conferences.
- The Stakeholder meeting will be held end of March 2022. It’s good to involve organisations active in the field of inclusion as experts. This way everyone can be encouraged to tailor their events/activities to the needs of ypwfo.
- This comment will be added to the agenda of the next consultative working group with NAs on 1st April 2022.
Question: It’s important to hear the voice of youngsters. What about young people that are hearing-impaired?
- It’s important that young people with fewer opportunities / disabilities are included in the Stakeholders group. There is a contractor doing mapping during March/April 2022 to see any missing gaps in the stakeholder group, especially related to inclusion.