Youth participation in towns and cities: The Council of Europe's updated Charter
Young people are, as the Council of Europe's updated Charter on youth participation puts it plainly, "the generation that will be most affected by today's decisions." They have a right to participate in those decisions. But rights on paper mean little without the conditions to exercise them. That is exactly what the newly revised European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life sets out to define. It also explains why this matters for every city that takes youth participation seriously.
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For decades, the Council of Europe has been setting standards for youth participation. Building on its unique co-management model, the new Charter adds to that body of work a concrete, operational framework.
What is the Charter?
First adopted in 1992, the Council of Europe’s Charter sets out recommendations on how to involve young people in local and regional life. In 2025, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities in partnership with the Joint Council on Youth began the process of revising and updating the Charter. The revision started in February 2025 with a youth event in the former European Youth Capital, Braga (Portugal) and followed a consultative process with young people and youth organisations. Our involvement? Together with the Advisory Council on Youth we shared our expertise on current needs and best practices during the drafting process.
The Charter's purpose is to promote and strengthen youth participation in decision-making at local and regional level, and to ensure what it calls an "enabling environment", that is, the means, spaces and structures that allow participation to be more than symbolic. It covers six areas: the principles underpinning youth participation, the rights and means young people need, the spaces and structures that should be in place, youth policy at city and regional level, the tools and opportunities authorities must provide, and how the Charter itself should be disseminated and evaluated.
What does it ask of towns and cities?
- Co-management, not consultation. The Charter promotes the principle that young people should be involved "in setting the agenda, decision making, implementation and evaluation" of decisions that affect their lives, as equal partners, not as voices to be noted and set aside. This is a meaningful shift from the more common model of youth participation as one-way input.
- Resources must follow rhetoric. Youth participation, the Charter states clearly, requires "dedicated and adequate financial and qualified human resources" embedded in regular planning and budgeting cycles. Staff working on youth participation processes must be well-trained and have sufficient resources at their disposal. Sustainable and permanent structures are preferable to one-off projects or ad hoc consultations.
- Genuine local youth councils. Local authorities should formally support, resource, and recognise independent youth councils. Youth Councils should have clear frameworks, a fair and representative composition, recurring funding, and real access to decision-making. Youth Councils as a permanent structure can also support the creation of topical consultation processes with a broader group of young people in the municipality. Crucially, the Charter specifies that funding requirements should not compromise youth councils' ability to have a critical voice.
Active barrier removal. Cities must not only open doors but actively identify and dismantle the barriers that prevent young people from walking through them. The Charter calls for specific attention to young people with disabilities, those from rural or remote areas, those from minority backgrounds, and refugees and asylum-seekers. It also encourages active support for young people interested in running for political office themselves.
Feedback as a requirement. Young people must receive feedback on how their participation has shaped outcomes. Without this, participation risks undermining rather than building trust in democracy.
Taken together, these standards challenge cities to reflect on how meaningful their participation practices really are. Are young people co-designing agendas from the start? Are youth councils adequately funded and genuinely independent? Are participation opportunities reaching young people from marginalised backgrounds? And are there mechanisms for feedback? The expectation now is straightforward: cities and regions that claim to support youth participation should be able to demonstrate it against the Charter's standards.
Connecting the Charter to the European Youth Capital title
Since 2009, we have awarded the title of European Youth Capital to a town or city each year. The youth capitals have the opportunity to place youth participation at the heart of city life, not just for twelve months, but longer-term too. With more than 10,000 events, 12,000 volunteers and millions of Euros in additional city funding for youth participation, the youth capital title has shown what is possible when a city genuinely works with young people's agency. Cities awarded the title have already proven their commitment to co-management across the year and beyond.
For those municipalities which haven’t (yet) been part of the European Youth Capital programme, the updated Charter is an opportunity to look at their practices and ask how deep the participation actually goes. Are young people co-designing agendas from the start, or mainly delivering a programme that adults have shaped? Are youth councils adequately funded and genuinely independent? Are participation opportunities reaching young people from marginalised backgrounds? Are there mechanisms for feedback, evaluation, and accountability?
As for potential future youth capital applicants, the Charter provides a fresh framework to answer these questions. Cities preparing future bids, or those interested in boosting local youth participation can use the Charter's standards as a self-assessment tool.
For the young people the Forum represents, the publication of this Charter is not the end of a process; it is the beginning of one.
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