In 2018, progress was made on youth rights at United Nations level, with a UN report on youth and human rights submitted to the Human Rights Council in the second half of the year and reflecting our priorities. We also saw an increase in the number of youth-focused recommendations put towards UN Member States through the Universal Periodic Review, the process that reviews countries’ human rights records, as a result of our work to support our Member Organisations to engage in the process.

Building on our previous work on the rights-based approach, in 2018 we developed our Member Organisations’ capacity to mainstream this approach in their work through dedicated training opportunities and our new Checklist #ForYouthRights.

Together with our partner Equinet, we fostered closer links between youth organisations and National Equality Bodies to address age-based discrimination against young people.

One of our priorities this year was to ensure that the voice of youth organisations was meaningfully represented in the discussions around the next Erasmus and European Solidarity Corps programmes. We worked to ensure that youth organisations will have a say on how these programmes are implemented and that they have access to sustainable funding for their projects.

The Youth Forum also successfully advocated for the recognition of youth organisations as youth work and non-formal education providers in the EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027. We brought the voice of youth organisations into the discussion on raising the quality of youth work, and working towards equal support, opportunities and recognition of volunteer youth workers.

Beyond Europe, the Youth Forum advocated strongly within the Youth Peace and Security agenda for youth organisations to be seen as an essential stakeholders for the implementation of the UNSCR2250. We also advocated for a stronger role for youth organisations within the framework of interregional cooperation and the network of universities with Africa and the Western Balkans as well as at global level with the Caribbean and Pacific with relevant institutions.

2018 saw the development of a solid basis for the European Youth Forum’s advocacy on sustainable development, through the adoption of a position paper on implementation of the 2030 Agenda in Europe and a policy paper on sustainable development more broadly. Research into the contribution of youth organisations to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development will also support further advocacy.

As a member of the EU’s Sustainable Development Goal Multistakeholder Platform, we were able to ensure strong references to youth in the Platform’s input to the European Commission on the implementation of the SDGs. Similarly, we helped to establish youth as one of the categories for the newly created EU Sustainability Awards.

During 2018, the European Youth Forum’s profile as an important stakeholder on sustainable development and climate change was raised, and we were able increase space for Member Organisations to bring their concerns to high-level meetings.

The European Youth Forum engaged with the different EU institutions to push for improvements to the European Social Fund Plus programme. Following this advocacy, the European Parliament position calls for increased funding for youth employment, the Youth Guarantee and social inclusion.

Continuing our work on transitions from education to work, the European Parliament’s decision to ban unpaid internships in MEPs offices was a huge step forwards for quality internships. The European Apprentices Network, meanwhile, encouraged the European Commission to map representative structures for apprentices across the EU.

We developed the capacity of Member Organisations to work on inclusion of refugees and displaced youth in their structures through the Welcome! Checklist and training opportunities. EU Council Conclusions on the role of youth work in the context of migration and refugee matters were adopted, recognising the importance of supporting the inclusion of young refugees from the day of arrival.

The European Youth Initiative Fund, implemented through partnership with UNHCR, successfully empowered ten grassroots level youth-led projects to enable displaced and local young people to build more inclusive and open communities in ten different European countries. In December 2018, the European Youth Initiative Fund received an award, recognising it as a best practice for enhancing the inclusion of young refugees into host communities.

The newly launched Youth Progress Index is a strong advocacy tool, providing data on the wellbeing of younger generations around the world, as well as to what extent their potential as global citizens is being met.

Research into how political parties can better at include young people and promote youth interests was published in our study, Youth & Political Parties - a toolkit for Youth-friendly politics in Europe. Looking ahead to the European Elections 2019, the European Youth Forum also adopted a campaign strategy and a Policy Platform, “10 Ideas to #YouthUP the 2019 European Elections”.

The European Youth Capital initiative continues to grow and evolve. To strengthen its development, and in line with the European Youth Forum’s vision, new strategic guidelines are now in place.

Through our advocacy work on the EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027 together with Member Organisations, we helped to ensure that the new Strategy contains a strong focus on participation, volunteering and youth work, and has established instruments for greater civil society involvement, and cross-sectoral implementation.

The European Youth Forum continued to build on our networks and outreach throughout 2018. We meet with several ambassadors within the European Union and Member States as well as Ministers in charge of Youth during the EU Youth Conference in Vienna in September. We also met with high-level officials at the United Nations. The Youth Forum’s input was taken on board in UN Youth Strategy, which has a strong focus on rights.

We expanded our contacts into new bodies, including the EPSCO Council and the Multi Stakeholder Platform working on Sustainable Development Goals implementation in the EU. We also developed our partnership with the Committee of the Regions.

The start of 2018 also saw the beginning of the development of the Council of Europe 2030 Youth strategy. The Youth Forum gave significant contributions to this process, ensuring that its main claims were included. There is more work to come in the year ahead.

Furthermore, the Youth Forum is contributing to the development of a European youth work strategy, through our position as part of the high level task force on the implementation of the Youth Work Recommendation of the Council of Europe.

The European Youth Forum has been nominated to be part of the new North-South Centre of the Council of Europe Executive Committee.