Advisory Council and Joint Council on Youth meet to discuss youth work

The Advisory Council and Joint Council on Youth met from 21st -23rd of March in Budapest. The meeting gathered youth and government representatives to jointly discuss the Council of Europe’s work in the youth sector. This advanced form of youth participation is called ‘co-management’.

The Joint Council discussed a variety of issues, such as a draft recommendation on youth work, a study on innovative forms of youth participation (including co-management) and a recommendation on young people’s access to their rights, which is expected to be adopted soon by the Committee on Ministers. The Romanian Youth Strategy, a build on the momentum of the 2015 European Youth Capital Cluj-Napoca, was presented and reviewed.

Leading up to the meeting, the European Youth Forum hosted a preparatory meeting for the youth representatives in the Advisory Council and we participated in all meetings as an observer.

It was the new Advisory Council’s first meeting for their two years mandate (2016-2017). Elections were held during the meeting. They elected a new Chair, Marko Grdosic (AEGEE-Students Forum), Vice-chair Anja Olin Pape (Swedish Youth Council) and Bureau members Tinna Rós (YMCA), Marko Boko (Croatian Youth Network) and Milosh Ristovski (Centre for intercultural dialogue). They also elected members to the Programming Committee, which decides funding through the European Youth Foundation. For the first time on the Council of Europe level, the elected chair of the Government representatives, Markus Wolf from the Austrian Ministry for Youth, is a visually impaired person.