The Youth Department is part of the Directorate of Democratic Participation within the Directorate General of Democracy and Human Dignity (“DGII”) of the Council of Europe. The Department elaborates guidelines, programmes and legal instruments for the development of coherent and effective youth policies at local, national and European levels.

It provides funding and educational support for international youth activities aiming to promote youth citizenship, youth mobility and the values of human rights, democracy and cultural pluralism. It seeks to bring together and disseminate expertise and knowledge about the life situations, aspirations and ways of expression of young Europeans.

Guidelines for the translation of Council of Europe texts into non-official languages

Statutory bodies

The European Steering Committee for Youth (CDEJ) brings together representatives of ministries or bodies responsible for youth matters from the 50 States Parties to the European Cultural Convention. The CDEJ fosters co-operation between governments in the youth sector and provides a framework for comparing national youth policies, exchanging best practices and drafting standard-setting texts.

The Advisory Council on Youth comprises 30 representatives of non-governmental youth organisations and networks. It provides opinions and input from youth NGOs on all youth sector activities and ensures that young people are involved in the Council’s other activities.

These two bodies come together in the Joint Council on Youth and the Programming Committee on Youth, which are co-decision bodies.

Co-management and decision-making system

The European Youth Centres

The European Youth Centres (EYCs) in Strasbourg and Budapest are permanent structures for the implementation of the Council of Europe’s youth policy. They are international training and meeting centres with residential facilities, and host most of the youth sector’s activities. The professional staff includes an advisory team giving educational and technical assistance in preparing, running and following up activities.

European Youth Centre Strasbourg

European Youth Centre Budapest

European Youth Foundation

The Council of Europe's European Youth Foundation (EYF) provides financial and educational support for European youth activities, it has an annual budget of approximately € 3.7 million. The EYF is a powerful tool for European youth co-operation. It supports European youth activities organised by non-governmental youth organisations and networks, such as international youth meetings, conferences, campaigns, training courses, seminars, study visits, which have as possible outputs exhibitions, publications, audio-visual material and websites.

Official website of the European Youth Foundation