The EU-CoE youth partnership is a co-operation programme between the European Commission and the Council of Europe in the field of youth, created in 1998. It is based on the principle of a balanced involvement of the partner institutions in terms of political priorities, management, funding and visibility.

The overall goal is to foster synergies between the youth-oriented activities of the two institutions, by working on themes of interest for both institutions and on issues that justify a common European approach. The activities of the EU-CoE youth partnership address the needs of young people and the wider youth field, including decision makers, governmental experts, youth researchers, youth practitioners and youth organisations.

Geographical coverage encompasses the European Union and the Council of Europe members and other signatory states of the European Cultural Convention, as well as neighbouring South Mediterranean countries.

Priorities

1. Participation/citizenship, including new concepts and tools;
2. Social inclusion with a focus on outreach, access to rights, and counteracting discrimination against vulnerable groups;
3. Quality development of youth work.

Objectives

• "Better knowledge" – aiming to establish a clear picture of current and upcoming challenges and trends in participation for all young people, based on research evidence, sociological and statistical analysis and input from within and beyond the youth sector;
• "Promotion of youth work" – advocacy regarding the contribution of youth work to youth participation and social inclusion, including innovative youth work, partnerships, outreach, learning mobility and recognition of youth work;

We also prioritise co-operation with a regional focus in relation to Eastern Europe and Caucasus, South-East Europe (Western Balkans), South Mediterranean within the specific themes.

In all the activities of the EU-CoE youth partnership, the communication and information aspects are prioritise, so that results reach a wide audience.

Governance

The European Commission and the Council of Europe are the main stakeholders of the EU-CoE youth partnership.

Several entities are also involved, such as the European Youth Forum, National Agencies of the European Commission's Erasmus+ (Youth in Action) programme, the SALTO Resource Centres, ERYICA and Eurodesk, and the Council of Europe's governmental (CDEJ) and non-governmental partners (Advisory Council), ministries responsible for youth issues in the members states, and research bodies. Partnership activities also benefit from the accumulated experience of the European Youth Centres in Strasbourg and Budapest and the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe in Lisbon.

All decisions are taken jointly by the two partner institutions in the Partnership Management Board. It brings together European Commission and Council of Europe representatives and observers.

The EU-CoE youth partnership brings together expertise from both sides with the aim of supporting youth development in all Europe. 

The Partnership provides a wide range of toolkits for activities and practices and resource documents to support youth work in Europe. They can be implemented on all levels, and help practitioners adapt to certain trends that happen, on all levels.

Regarding to the youth work The EU-CoE youth partnership's current focus on youth work happens through:

• Supporting activities around quality youth work from both institutions;
• Supporting achieving a social, political and formal recognition of youth work and of non-formal learning;
• Contributing to the development of quality youth work and to support related tools and mechanisms;
• Supporting the dissemination and exchange of successful and innovative initiatives with regard to the recognition of youth work and non-formal learning;
• Continuing the reflection, the sharing of information and the promotion of youth work practice and policy through exploring history of youth work in Europe and its relevance for today and through relevant publications;
• Supplementing existing knowledge on learning mobility, steer and consolidate the work of the European Platform on Learning Mobility.

More information can be found here: https://pjp-eu.coe.int/en/web/youth-partnership/youth-work, or more specific, the toolkits are here: https://pjp-eu.coe.int/en/web/youth-partnership/t-kits. 

For the last few years, the EU-CoE youth partnership worked on a series of publications, under the name of History of Youth Work. All topics, from when it started, who started it and how practices changed, to many more, are covered in the 7 volumes that make the series. The last one, on the History of European Youth Organisations, is coming out soon. More about this here: https://pjp-eu.coe.int/en/web/youth-partnership/history-of-youth-work.

The EU-CoE Youth Partnership also publishes the COYOTE magazine two times per year. More about it here: https://pjp-eu.coe.int/en/web/coyote-magazine/home

The EU-CoE Youth Partnership has an active YouTube channel where youth work related videos are published. Recently they had a n the discussion with the researcher Magda Nico and to get to know the research which explores the extent to which people believe in certain social premises, how their belief system is composed, and how this varies across the European countries,. Here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLIGU-027us&feature=youtu.be

Publications

To maximise the impact of the EU-CoE youth partnership, the results of its work are disseminated via the following publications

https://pjp-eu.coe.int/en/web/youth-partnership/publications