The 1st Africa-Europe Youth Summit was held in Lisbon, Portugal, on 8-9 December 2007.

It was jointly organised by the European Youth Forum, the Pan African Youth Union and the NSC-CoE with the support of the European Commission and the Portuguese Youth Institute, hosted by the Portuguese National Youth Council.

The 1st Africa-Europe Youth Summit concluded with a final declaration that stated the main priorities of African and European young people for the Euro-African cooperation, focusing on poverty eradication. Additionally, the following priority themes were identified: achieving the Millennium Development Goals; supporting Good Governance and Democracy; safeguarding Peace and fighting Conflict; understanding Globalisation, Trade and Socio-Economic Development; managing Climate Change and Sustainable Development; fighting for Decent Work and Employment; addressing Migration, Mobility, Intercultural Dialogue and Co-development; designing strategies and Instruments for Euro-African Youth Participation and Cooperation.

The declaration presented in the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe called for an Africa-Europe Youth programme for the exchange and capacity-building of youth organisations, creating a framework and conditions for their active participation in the development of their societies, in decision/policy-making and in the implementation of the EU-Africa Strategic partnership.

The 2nd Africa-Europe Youth Summit was held in Tripoli, Libya, on 25-28 November 2010.

It was jointly organised by the European Youth Forum, the Pan-African Youth Union, ICMYO organisations and the National Organization of Libyan Youth, with the support of the European Union and the North- South Centre.

The objectives of the Summit were:

to further promote the full involvement of young people and youth organisations in the Africa-Europe cooperation, particularly in the implementation of the EU-Africa Strategic Partnership;

to assess the progress on the implementation of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy and the First Action Plan;

to contribute to the future political agenda of Africa-Europe relations, namely the next Action Plan, to be adopted at the 3rd EU-Africa Heads of State and Government Summit;

to discuss on the effective mechanisms for monitoring and follow up of the Joint Strategy and the next Action Plan;

to contribute to the development of a coherent and coordinated strategy on youth in the Africa-EU partnership, aimed to achieve the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, and to implement the World Programme of Action for Youth;

to build a common strategy and plan on the development of the existing dialogue and cooperation framework, aiming to a sustainable and permanent cooperation between African and European youth organisations;

to foster the youth programmes and initiatives of cooperation and their support both from the European and African side by creating opportunities for capacity building and training and facilitating networking, exchanges and information sharing.

The final declaration presented in the Summit of Heads of State and Government contained recommendations on the involvement of young people and youth organisations in the implementation of the priority areas of the Africa-Europe Cooperation and the EU-Africa Strategic Partnership.

The 3rd Africa-Europe Youth Summit was held in Brussels, Belgium, on the 31 March - 1 April 2014.

The Youth Summit provided a platform for exchange between African and European Youth Leaders on the main challenges faced by youth on the two continents and debate on how the Africa-EU partnership would empower them and their organisations to find lasting solutions to these challenges. The discussions were held under three thematic areas: leadership development, entrepreneurship/ employment and peace.

The ultimate aim was to request a meeting of Heads of States and governments at the 4th EU-Africa Summit to build on the success of the Africa-Europe Youth work and address the common youth challenges through establishing an Africa-EU Youth facility targeting joint actions on the three themes.

The Youth Summit assessed the tangible results achieved in the framework of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES) and provided a new impetus to the youth partnership.

The 4th Africa-Europe Youth Summit was held in Abidjan, the Ivory Coast, on 9-11 of October 2017. Young Africans, Europeans and a diaspora of members helped develop a set of recommendations to present to the Heads of State at the 5th AU-EU Summit in November.

The 4th edition of the Africa-Europe Youth Summit was organised by youth platforms in Africa and Europe (PYU, YFJ and NIYOA) as well as organisations of diaspora youth (ADYNE, ADYFE and ACPYPN), with inputs from the Advisory Council on Youth of the Council of Europe.

The overarching theme for the 5th AU-EU “Investing in Youth for a Sustainable Future” laid the foundation for a strengthened and meaningful inclusion of youth in the Africa—EU partnership.

The main outcome of this Youth Summit was the Abidjan Youth Declaration, capturing the key political recommendations addressing the concerns of young people in both continents, and eventually becoming the political chapeau of the Youth Agenda.

In accordance with the aim for the Summit of bringing concrete deliverables to the table for the Africa-EU partnership in the years to come, 36 of the Youth Summit participants (AU-EU fellows) continued the work in clusters on 6 priority themes: Business, Job Creation and Entrepreneurship; Education and Skills; Peace and Security; Governance and Political Inclusion; Climate and Environmental Preservation; and Culture, Sports and Arts, including 3 cross-cutting issues (gender equality, migration and digitalisation) in a 5-week period.