At the first of its two meetings in 2018, the Joint Council on Youth (CMJ), the youth sector’s co-managed decision-making body, discussed the youth sector’s priorities and decided on the next steps.

The main decisions were about:

• implementation of the Enter! recommendation:
  the CMJ decided the future review of implementation shall include a collection of best practices and examples of how youth organisations and local authorities co-operate.  Young people/youth organisations shall be consulted in order to provide input; data gathered from requests for supportive measures shall be presented.  This is in addition to the information that will be provided on measures taken by member states and on youth organisations’ projects/initiatives, including those implemented in co-operation with local authorities.
• implementation of the recommendation on youth work:
  the CMJ endorsed the high-level task force on youth work’s proposal for the knowledge-based development of European youth work by means of a Common European Youth Work Agenda.  This agenda will draw on better knowledge to support a more dynamic European process to develop youth work.  It will feature a strong European policy agenda to be co-ordinated by the Council of Europe with the European Commission.  Member states, the CMJ and other stakeholders at all levels will play a proactive role.  The CMJ also welcomed the translation of the recommendation into Bosnian, Dutch, Finnish and Swedish and encouraged further translations into other non-official languages.
• implementation of the recommendation on young people’s access to rights:
  the CMJ started to examine draft guidelines on how to support member states in their work with young people and their organisations to improve young people’s access to rights through the implementation of the recommendation. The reworded guidelines will be back on the agenda in October 2018.  The CMJ agreed to review the impact of this Recommendation in 2021, focusing on discriminatory practices faced by young people and on obstacles to the right to freedom of assembly, including forming and joining associations and trade unions.
• supporting young refugees and migrants in transition to adulthood:
  the CMJ examined the draft text of the proposed recommendation of the Committee of Ministers to member States on this issue and decided that work would continue with another meeting of the drafting group to be organised in the summer once all consultations at national level have finished.  The revised draft will be on the agenda of the CMJ’s October 2018 meeting.
• “shrinking space for civil society and youth organisations: contemporary challenges and solutions”:
  following presentations from the Council of Europe Conference of INGOs and a youth activist from “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”, the CMJ made proposals for the consultative meeting which will be organised on 7 and 8 November 2018 in Strasbourg on the same theme.

You will find all of the decisions here.