2022 is the European Year of Youth offering further opportunities for young people to voice their political views. In order to move forward in solving the climate crisis, youth voices are more crucial than ever before. To this end, ICLEI Europe encourages cities to apply to become the next 2025 European Youth Capital, a title awarded to empower young people politically and give them a platform to share innovative ideas.

Young people must have an equal opportunity to shape the social, economic and political life in their community. They bring fresh ideas, rejuvenate local democracy, and their contributions benefit all city residents. ICLEI advocates for a bigger role of youth in co-designing sustainability policies, for example, by creating space for dialogue on climate action between young people and policy-makers, like the pre-COP event on “Empowering youth for climate action” or the upcoming ICLEI World Congress. 

The European Youth Capital project supports both young people and the city to open up these possibilities and lead the way for other European municipalities to follow.

The competition is open to any local authority from Member States of the Council of Europe, which are parties to the European Cultural Convention. The winning city will have a chance to showcase its commitments and engage residents to work together on meaningful youth-led urban initiatives. This will ultimately lead to stronger support for youth rights and improve connection with other European cities prioritising youth residents. ICLEI Europe works together with policy-makers, researchers, and young people themselves to support youth participation in shaping policies at all governance levels. ICLEI in collaboration with the European Horizon2020 UpLift project will develop training materials for local stakeholders to implement reflexive policy-making processes which place young people’s voices at the centre. 

The application process itself is also an opportunity for municipalities and youth organisations to work together, discuss youth priorities, and receive feedback from an expert group on their proposals. The deadline for submission is 21 February 2022. 

To learn more, read this report “'European Youth Capital - Ten years of boosting vibrant youthful cities"

Find more information on submission here.