The Council of Europe was invited to participate in the first Commonwealth Youth Senior Officials Meeting (Europe region and Canada), which took place in London on 13-14 January 2020.

This meeting brought together senior officials responsible for youth, as well as key youth stakeholders, in order to examine issues that are pertinent to the regional youth policy agenda and help identify priorities for action, in line with the 9th Commonwealth Youth Ministers Meeting.

On this occasion, Florian Cescon, Head of the Youth Policy Division, presented the Council of Europe’s youth policy agenda (including the new Council of Europe youth sector strategy 2030) to the Commonwealth youth stakeholders. All participants realised that, despite their diverse memberships, the Commonwealth and the Council of Europe shared many similarities, notably in terms of history, values, governance and thematic priorities in the field of youth.

Ideas for possible complementarities between the Council of Europe’s youth sector and the Commonwealth were also mentioned, notably in the field of youth work, youth participation, as well as youth, peace and security.