“The pandemic has robbed young people of many opportunities – to meet and make new friends, to experience and explore new cultures. While we cannot give them that time back, we are proposing today to designate 2022 the European Year of Youth”. With these words, during the 2021 State of the Union speech, EC President Ursula Von der Leyen proposed to dedicate 2022 to young people.
And here we go, 2022 #EuropeanYearOfYouth is now reality: with this initiative, the European Commission aims at supporting and empowering the generation that has sacrificed the most during the pandemic. It will do that, by encouraging all young people to become active citizens and actors of positive change; by promoting opportunities for their personal, social and professional development; and by providing them with quality jobs, learning and training opportunities.
YEU, as a youth-led organisation committed to empowerment and development of young people, strongly supports this initiative. We wish you all a bright, successful and flourishing #EuropeanYearOfYouth, full of new experiences, challenges, friendships, exchanges and learning opportunities! To demonstrate its commitment to the cause, YEU will be part of the Stakeholder group on European Year of Youth created on a DG EAC initiative (Directorate General for Education and Culture of the European Commission). Once again – happy year of youth!