“Many young people are still not able to contribute meaningfully to political debates or can only do so under agendas that they have not shaped themselves”, stressed Congress Secretary General Mathieu Mori, praising in this regard the important work done by the Joint Council on Youth to overcome such shortcomings in youth participation. Addressing the Council at its 50th meeting in the European Youth Centre Budapest on 9-10 April 2024, he underlined that many cross-overs already existed between youth activities undertaken by the Congress and intergovernmental bodies on youth, and pointed to the opportunities for reinforcing this partnership in the run-up to the Committee of Ministers’ Presidency of Malta in 2025 which aimed to put youth policies at centre stage.
Great interest in pursuing the close collaboration with the Congress was expressed by members of both the European Steering Committee for Youth and the Youth Advisory Council who regularly participate in the Joint Council under the co-management structure of the Council of Europe youth sector. In a dynamic exchange, the results of previous co-operation activities were recalled, for example in the areas of rural youth or youth work in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. On this occasion, the Secretary General announced the new revision of the Revised European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life – a process that had just been initiated by the Congress in this year of the 10th anniversary of its own Youth Delegates initiative “Rejuvenating politics”.
