The EUSAIR Youth Council was officially presented to the EUSAIR community and the broader macro-regional audience during the closing event of the Hellenic EUSAIR Presidency – the 10th EUSAIR Annual Forum held in Crete on 6 – 7 May 2025. At the invitation of the Connect newsletter editors, the following article was written by members of the EUSAIR Youth Council and edited by members Milica Stankić and Gerasimos Avgerinos.
The recent inauguration of the EUSAIR Youth Council reaffirms the integration importance and the strategic role of youth perspective in the agenda setting and the implementation of the EU macro regional strategy for the communication of the project to various societal actors. The empowerment of youth, under conditions of global multiple crisis, constitutes a main pillar of the EU Youth Strategy and can diffuse the EUSAIR structures and priorities to the societies of the respective states involved. Thus, the Youth Council can hold a key position bridging the governance structures with the transnational civil society, increasing the results to citizens and the sense of ownership, which are the strategic priorities of the European Commission for the Macroregional strategy.
Council Members should act as official youth delegates; work in groups on key issues like mobility, innovation, sustainability, and help shape real policies. The Council can also track how EUSAIR is being put into action from a youth perspective, pushing for more transparency. With peer learning, exchanges, and training, it can give more young people the tools to understand and influence policy. To have a sense that their opinions and feelings matter for regional policy. Instead of being an economically and socially marginalized group, they should feel that their opinions and feelings matter and that they can be effective actors in shaping regional dynamics. Real youth participation means more than being heard—it means being trusted and empowered to shape decisions that affect our future. But how is the EYC going to achieve these goals and how is it functioning?
The EUSAIR Youth Council was started operating last October is currently serving under transition period until the official adoption of the Council’s Rules of Procedure whose final version have been recently introduced. It consists of 20 Members coming from four EU Member States, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Slovenia, five EU candidate countries, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and one non-EU country, San Marino (two members of the EYC from each country). It is noteworthy that there is an absolute gender balance in the composition of the Council, whose members are divided in five sub-groups, following the five Pillars and the Steer Thematic Groups of the EUSAIR Governance Structure: 1) Blue sustainable economy 2) Connecting the region 3) Environmental quality 4) Sustainable tourism and 5) the recently introduced Pillar of Improved Social Cohesion. Moreover, during the transition period, the Members of the EYC were divided in two task forces: one for the facilitation of the Rules of the Procedure and one for the Programme of Work, while the teams of Communication and Awareness as going to be functioning soon.
As first steps after inauguration the Council is focusing on the implementation of concrete projects with measurable results. This is how the Council is going to gain visibility taking initiatives showing the impact of EUSAIR policies to daily life threw a synergies-based approach that will motivate more young people to actively engage. In this regard the EUSAIR Youth Council holds consultations with the Mediterranean Youth Group for the initiation of common actions and projects, which are expected to lead to a long term cooperation, while Members of the Council are going to participate in the 1st Stakeholders’ Forum and the 1st Forum for Women-Headed SMEs in the framework of the project Design of Masterplan for Sustainable Tourism Development in the Sava River Basin. This is also related to flagships of blue and green corridors in the region to promote international cooperation. In parallel, the Council has received an invitation for the Skillman Alliance Summit 2025 in Ancona and will also provide advisory opinion on the priorities of the upcoming EUSAIR Presidency of North Macedonia, while working on a flagship proposal on youth policy and social cohesion.
The introduction of the EYC is a very innovative decision that create major opportunities but also faces structural challenges at the time of its inauguration. This is related to the fact that the different dynamics of an intergovernmental forum without separate legal personality and the national bureaucracies supporting the EUSAIR structure have led to standardized procedures which can’t provide in all circumstances the required flexibility to facilitate the participation of all the members of the EYC to the governance structures. However, threw the projects and civil society partnerships oriented approach and having the support of important institutional actors, the EYC will be effectively integrated to the governance of EUSAIR and will have the opportunity to empower youth voice in the agenda setting, the communication and the implementation of the macro regional strategy, promoting the active engagement and action of young people in the Area.
Who is who in the EUSAIR Youth Council
