In drawing up a White Paper to reflect the concerns and expectations of young people it quickly became obvious that the European Commission would need to engage the involvement not only of young people themselves, but also of youth groups, organisations, researchers and public administrations.

This resulted in the Europe-wide consultation that took place between May 2000 and March 2001. It brought together several thousand people, mainly young Europeans, from all kinds of backgrounds and countries.

The consultation focused on five major themes: participation; employment (as well as vocational training and social integration); education; welfare (along with personal autonomy and culture); and European values (including mobility and relations with the rest of the world).