Which city will be the European Youth Capital 2025? Let's hear from the finalists

The candidacy campaign for the European Youth Capital 2025 title and its slogan "Go, Fuenla Go!" already generated a lot of enthusiasm among all residents of Fuenlabrada. The city receives wide support from young people, musicians, artists and associations by participating in the events that the Municipality of Fuenlabrada and the Youth Council are organising. Check out the video messages from campaign supporters here.

“Our candidacy has achieved a broad institutional consensus, with the support of all political groups at the local, regional and national levels. Fuenlabrada has the backing of the Assembly of Madrid, the Congress of Deputies and the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, as well as the National Youth Council. We would also like to highlight the strong support of the Spanish Government” mentioned the city's representatives.

One of Fuenlabrada's biggest accomplishments of its candidacy campaign is the high number of events organised for young people. This way, the city was able to already create new spaces for youth participation. More than 1,000 young people joined the first-ever Fuenlabrada Youth Forum, during which they had the opportunity to make proposals and raise their opinions on topics such as sustainability and the adaptation of urban spaces.

As a result, a permanent communication channel has been opened to receive citizens' proposals for youth activities and services.

Another priority of Izmir is to increase effective public communication among its citizens and especially among young people. By this time, the city has organised many events to raise awareness about its work and operations, such as camping and workshops for young people.

At the same time, the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality is working hard on re-establishing its own Youth Council. The renewed youth council will start shaping the youth policies in the city from autumn 2022.

Lviv is getting ready for the end of the selection process. How? The municipality has carried out surveys among young people in order to develop a closer connection with them, understand their current needs and problems, as well as their motivation to stay in Ukraine (or come back home in case of their temporary stay abroad due to war). The survey has been launched with U-Report Ukraine - a social messaging tool and data collection system developed by UNICEF to improve citizen engagement. The results of the survey will be used for shaping Lviv’s EYC 2025 programme, in case it wins.

In addition, Lviv is organising a series of offline and online meetings with young people from all over Ukraine to discuss the role of youth, youth policy and involvement of young people in different sectors of economy, civic and political life. The results of the discussions will be summarised in the Manifest of Ukrainian youth.

On 12 August, the official celebration of International Youth Day took place for the first time in Ukraine. This is proof that Ukrainian youth is part of the international community and strives for a future in an independent and democratic country. The celebrations included the award ceremony for young volunteers who have made a great contribution to fighting against Russian aggression. “All the above-mentioned activities are initiated and organised by youth for youth. Now is the time to come together, stay strong and act decisively” said the young people of Lviv.

Residents will soon be able to join the local youth conference in Tromsø as well as the upcoming regional youth conference for young participants between the ages of 14-20. “In October, we are planning to organise a conference with indigenous youth from the whole Sápmi region on the topic of “Young Indigenous Health”, which is one of the main topics of our European Youth Capital 2025 proposal” explained Tromsø's representatives.

Originally, the initiative to apply for the EYC 2025 title came from the local and regional youth councils and the youth centre in Tromsø, and they are very much still in charge of the work. It is great to see that the young people in the project team now play a key role in designing an innovative youth participation process and in developing and revising new national laws on the “Act relating to motor traffic on uncultivated land and in waterways”. The team from Tromsø is staying ambitious, hoping it will lead to designing new methods and processes for youth participation in the revising of national laws in Norway!

Tromsø municipality is currently also in a dialogue with the European Youth Parliament, wanting to organise the 98th International Session of the European Youth Parliament in Tromsø in March 2023. Coming up next on the agenda are youth policy seminars, cross-sectorial workshops, debates, and other activities in the city and the region under the framework of the European Year of Youth 2022.