17 - 19 September 2019, De Hoge Rielen Youth Centre is being visited by the Quality Label Expert Group of the Council of Europe to assess its eligibility for the Council of Europe Quality Label for Youth Centres. The centre applied for the Quality Label of the Council of Europe in 2017 as the second Belgian youth centre aspiring to be a role model in the field of non-formal-, citizenship- and human rights education.

The youth centre, located in the Flemish countryside, was originally a military domain until and was taken over by the Ministry of Education and Culture (Flemish) in 1974 to offer pedagogical youth programmes, quality youth work and accommodation for young people based on environmental nature education.

The evaluation of the centre is being conducted by an expert group composed by delegated members of the European Steering Committee for Youth (CDEJ), the Advisory Council on Youth (CCJ), a representative of the network of Quality Labelled Youth Centres and the Youth Department of the Council of Europe. The assessment is based on 15 quality criteria which an aspiring centre should fulfil.

Currently 13 youth centres across Europe hold the Council of Europe Quality Label for Youth Centres.

 Expert Team:

• Alice Barbieri, Member of the Advisory Council on Youth (CCJ)
• Miriam Teuma, CEO of the Youth Agency of Malta, Chair of CDEJ
• Nikola Blagojevic, Manager of Ekocentar Youth Centre, Sremski Karlovci, Serbia
• Anca-Ruxandra Pandea – Expert consultant, Romania
• Gordana Berjan, Executive Director of the European Youth Centre Budapest, Council of Europe