Applications are officially open for the 2018 European Youth Capital!

Applications for the European Youth Capital (EYC) title 2018 are officially open! From December 16th 2014 until February 28th 2015, European cities will have the opportunity to present themselves as candidates for EYC 2018, before the eventual winner is announced at the European Youth Forum’s Council of Members in November 2015.

The European Youth Capital (EYC) title is awarded to a different European city each year by the European Youth Forum. During an EYC year, the host city holds events and projects designed to demonstrate the active, essential role that young people and youth organisations play in society. The EYC title will be awarded for the tenth time in 2018, having first been awarded to Rotterdam in 2009. Since then, the title has gone to Turin (2010), Antwerp (2011), Braga (2012), Maribor (2013), current EYC Thessaloniki (2014), Cluj-Napoca (2015), Ganja (2016), and Varna (2017).

Applicant cities are requested to submit a multi-faceted programme outlining their motivation, the intended long-term social impact of their EYC year, as well as their plans to both continue and expand youth-related projects. These EYC activities should have a clear European dimension and link to European youth policies, including youth participation, non-formal education, employment, social inclusion, volunteering, international cooperation, multiculturalism, and integration.

From here, five short-listed candidates will be selected by a 10-person independent jury. The jury is comprised of institutional and civil society youth policy experts and practitioners, representatives from the private sector, media and from local and regional authorities. These five candidates will be provided with feedback and recommendations as to how they can improve their applications, before a final winner is chosen and announced at the European Youth Forum’s Council of Members in November 2015.

The European Youth Forum is delighted to open this process, and looks forward to receiving the first applications for EYC 2018. All dates and details for the application process are available below, and you can find the application form itself below. Should you have any questions relating to the application and selection procedure, please contact Franziska Schwelm (Policy Officer, Youth Participation) at the European Youth Forum’s Secretariat: franziska.schwelm@youthforum.org. More information is also available on the European Youth Capital website www.europeanyouthcapital.org.