The approach of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities is based on three key principles: achieving SDGs is the shared responsibility of all levels of government; local and regional authorities must have the necessary competences and financial autonomy to achieve the goals in their respective areas; citizens must always remain at the heart of the action.

The Congress recognizes the importance of interregional links and cross-border cooperation in stimulating innovation and industrialization. It has worked especially on the digitalization aspects and opportunities as well as more practical cooperation. In relation to SDG 9, the Congress adopted the following texts:

The Partial Agreement on Youth Mobility through the Youth Card has been working on building resilient infrastructure. A seminar titled "Youth ecosystems essentials: the role of European Youth Card in advancing ecosystems for youth empowerment" was organised on 29-31 May 2024 in Podgorica, Montenegro.

The European Youth Centres in Strasbourg and Budapest play an essential and innovative role in advancing Sustainable Development Goal 9—with a particular emphasis on accessibility and inclusion for young people. Both Centres, as highlighted in official Council of Europe documentation, are more than just physical spaces: they are engines of youth participation, combining advanced facilities, accessible infrastructure, and inclusive programming to ensure that young people with diverse needs can actively engage in the life and decision-making of the Council of Europe youth sector.

The Centres’ commitment to accessibility is multidimensional. On a logistical level, they offer barrier-free environments, continuous improvements in infrastructure, and support services so that participants with disabilities or special needs can fully engage in residential training, seminars, and activities. Initiatives include providing materials in accessible formats, implementing universal design principles, and training staff in inclusive practices, which collectively remove obstacles to participation. In terms of inclusion, the Centres co-create their programme content with young people ensuring that policy, training, and youth-led projects reflect real diversity and respond to the lived experiences of all youth. This participatory and co-managed approach ensures that young people are not merely beneficiaries but true partners and innovators in the design and delivery of the youth sector’s work.

Moreover, the Centres act as laboratories for innovation in youth information, learning, and digital inclusion. They host training in digital skills, support the roll-out of quality standards in youth information, and facilitate the development of eLearning and blended learning opportunities—further ensuring accessible pathways for young people who might face geographic, economic, or social barriers to participation. Through an ongoing Accessibility Agenda, working groups, and dedicated resources, the Youth Department places accessibility and inclusion at the heart of every strand of activity, recognizing that true innovation is impossible without the full and equitable inclusion of all young people

 

In 2025 through Partnership between the Council of Europe’s Youth Sector and ERYICA the following activities took place:

Advanced YIntro and eLearning courses - Online training: Aiming for the constant development of youth information and counselling services, training and capacity building of youth information workers is a key area. Also, continuous professional development is key in all sectors, and youth information and counselling is no different. For these reasons, ERYICA proposes the translation and delivery of the Advanced YIntro course in 2025.  The Advanced YIntro course is targeted at experienced Youth Information Workers who aim to further develop their skills and competences, as well as to broaden their youth information expertise on a more abstract level.

Providing eLearning opportunities, enabling youth workers, youth information workers, managers and administrators in the youth sector to enhance their skills and expertise.

European Youth Information Quality Label – The Quality Label is a major achievement in the history of the CoE-ERYICA Partnership. The Label has been developed in this framework over two years, and applications were open in 2021. The Label has become an established and recognised quality tool in youth information and counselling across Europe. With misinformation and the overload of information being an obstacle to the orientation of young people today, the Quality Label turns out to be a highly beneficial tool for both young people and youth information services.

The Council of Europe Landscape Convention (ETS No. 176) focuses on the protection, management, and planning of landscapes, with considerations for integrating landscape concerns into national policies such as spatial, town-planning, and economic policies. Infrastructure, industry, and innovation are mentioned indirectly as factors that can impact landscapes, not as targets for promotion, development, or improvement. Its approach to infrastructure and industry is limited to mitigating their impact on landscapes.

Therefore, Committee of Ministers’ Recommendation CM/Rec(2021)9 on Landscape and responsibility of stakeholders for sustainable and harmonious development addresses Goal 9 by including it as an objective and by recommending policy integration that covers infrastructure, industrial, and innovative development within a sustainable framework. The appendix to the recommendation explicitly lists Goal 9 among the Sustainable Development Goals. The text recommends that member States "make use of landscape policies in public policies that have a direct and indirect impact on the landscape", specifying that this applies to economic policies, which include industrialisation and infrastructure. It also advocates for the integration of the landscape dimension into sustainable development policies, which by its nature encompasses infrastructure development and innovation.

 

This page reflects recent and ongoing developments in the activities of the Council of Europe towards the Sustainable Development Goals. The Council’s historical activities in this area have been archived.