The Council of Europe has launched the Youth delegates: Call for applications to participate in the 2021 edition of the "Rejuvenating Politics" initiative.

The "Youth Delegates" project is part of the Congress initiative "Rejuvenating Politics" which, since 2014, aims to promote the participation of young people in public life and in the decision-making process at local and regional level.

Aims and Objectives

By inviting a number of young people to take an active part in its 40th and 41st sessions the Congress aims to give young people an opportunity to express their opinions about all the issues being discussed directly to the local and regional elected representatives.

The specific objectives are to:

• involve young people directly in all aspects of the Congress’ work;
• make young people aware about the Congress’ work and the tools it has developed to support youth participation;
• discuss with young people how local and regional youth participation can be boosted;
• bring the youth perspective to all thematic debates within the Congress;
• motivate the youth delegates to multiply the information and experience acquired during the sessions on their return home in particular through the development and implementation of their own projects at local and regional levels;
• share information about existing models of youth-led structures and motivate young people to spread the word about the Congress’ work;
• promote co-operation between members of the Congress and youth delegates;
• show national delegations the importance of officially including more young people as members.

Programme: The entire youth delegate programme is compulsory, youth delegates who do not take part in one or more of these aspects will be replaced by their national substitute delegate.

Compulsory activities include:

• participation in online preparation with the trainers prior to each session;
• full attendance during both sessions (which includeds the preparation day on the eve of each session and the evaluation meeting on the last afternoon of each session);
• availability to hold several Skype meetings (April – September) with trainers to prepare the youth project;
• implementation of the project between April and mid-September 2021.

One young person from these 10 member States of the Council of Europe will be invited by the Congress to:

• Come to Strasbourg, France to participate actively as a youth delegate in the 40th (23-26 March) and 41st (26-28 October) sessions of the Congress together with the young delegates from the other 37 member states already chosen in 2020, or take part in possible online/hybrid sessions
• Develop his/her own local project to return to his/her country, under the Congress ‘aegis

Eligibility Criteria

• As part of its "Rejuvenating Politics" initiative, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe is calling for applications from young people from the following countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Georgia, France, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco and the Slovak Republic.
• Profile of participants: All youth delegates should:
• be open, committed and motivated to develop and strengthen dialogue between young people and elected representatives at local/regional level;
• be between 18 and 30 years old;
• hold the passport of, and live in, the country they will represent;
• be active in youth work at local and regional levels;
• be available to engage in the whole of the activity including the preparation of grass-roots projects;
• have an interest in actively participating in policy making at local and/or regional levels but not be an elected representative;
• be able to multiply the information obtained during the session on their return home
• have good writing and public speaking skills
• be committed to working in an intercultural team;
• not have participated in the initiative previously;
• speak English fluently

For more information, visit Council of Europe.