The EU-CoE youth partnership at a glance

Background

In the last ten years the Council of Europe and the European Commission have developed a close cooperation in the youth field.

Since 1998, this EU-CoE youth partnership between the two institutions has taken the form of consecutive agreements focusing in a first stage on “European Youth Worker and Youth Leader Training”, complemented in 2003 by two further covenants, one on “Euro-Mediterranean youth co-operation” and another one on “Youth Research”. As from 2005 both partners strengthened co-operation and established one single Partnership Agreement with the aim to provide a lasting framework for the joint development of a coherent strategy in the field of youth worker training, youth policy and youth research.

The EU-CoE youth partnership provides an added value to the programmes of the two institutions and their institutional partners, fosters co-operation, complementarity and synergies and enhances the EU-CoE youth partnership’s impact on youth related policies and activities in Europe and beyond.

The current EU-CoE youth partnership Agreement covers the period 1st July 2010 – 31th December 2013.  

The political framework of the partnership agreement in the field of youth is set:

In the European Union, by the Communication from the Commission “An EU strategy for Youth – Investing and Empowering” from April 2009 and the Council Resolution on a renewed framework for European co-operation in the youth field (2010-2018) from November 2009, which are rooted in the White Paper on Youth (2001) and its follow-up and the European Youth Pact (2005); in more general terms, it is linked to the Europe 2020 Strategy - in particular the 'Youth on the Move' flagship initiative - and the Social Agenda, the Barcelona Process, the Enlargement process, the European Neighbourhood Policy and the Eastern Partnership; In the Council of Europe, by the Resolution of the Committee of Ministers of November 2008 on the future youth policy of the Council of Europe which is based on the Declaration of the 8th Conference of European Ministers responsible for Youth (October 2008), called “Council of Europe’s youth policy: AGENDA 2020”; in more general terms it is linked to the Action Plan adopted by the Heads of State and Governments in their Warsaw summit 2005 and the political follow-up to this summit, particularly in the fields of human rights, social cohesion and intercultural dialogue;

For both, Council of Europe and European Union by the Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2007, providing a new framework for enhanced co-operation and political dialogue which is guiding, governing and structuring relations between the two organisations. Following this memorandum co-operation shall “take due account of the comparative advantages, the respective competences and expertise of the Council of Europe and the European Union – avoiding duplication and fostering synergy, search for added value and make better use of existing resources”. The Memorandum of Understanding is building on a number of previous arrangements regulating the institutional relations between the two organisations and also pays tribute to the “strategic vision” contained in the so-called Juncker report on the relations between the Council of Europe and the European Union (“Council of Europe – European Union: a sole ambition for the European continent”, 2006).

Objectives