Think with Youth – a Youth Perspective is an Attitude

Learn from and with Youth – a Youth Perspective is an Experience

Participate with Youth – a Youth Perspective is a Skill

Act with and for Youth – a Youth Perspective is an Action

These gold standards constitute the strategic objectives the Council of Europe is now striving to experience and promote beyond the youth sector. The Elements for a Council of Europe reference framework for a youth perspective, adopted by the Joint Council on Youth (CMJ) (April 2024) and welcomed by the Ministers at their 133rd session (May 2024), are the important foundations for achieving these objectives. The reference framework, which will be a strategic and political document with definitions, good practices, methodologies and an action plan, will now be drafted and adopted by the CMJ in April 2025, before being presented at the 10^th Conference of Ministers responsible for Youth on 30 September-2 October 2025, hosted by Malta in the framework of its presidency of the CM.

On 13 June 2024, the CMJ Working Group (WG) on the implementation of a youth perspective, met for the second time, welcoming the progress made by the Youth Department. Indeed, a youth perspective has been presented and discussed with almost all the 29 intergovernmental committees and subordinate bodies for them to create a first baseline on the level of its integration in their work. In addition, the WG agreed on the objectives of a consultative meeting to address the reference framework (19-20 September 2024, European Youth Centre Strasbourg). The purpose of this meeting will be to gather key stakeholders – including both governmental and civil society representatives, and other sectors of the Council of Europe – notably to work on the definition of what may constitute a youth perspective and its significance in the Council of Europe’s context and at the level of member States and identify opportunities and address challenges in integrating it. It should also lead to the development of practical recommendations and strategies for its effective implementation.

The WG will then present and discuss the contributions from the consultative meeting with the CMJ at its next plenary meeting (October 2024) before initiating the drafting process.

More information will soon be published on a Youth Perspective webpage.