Young Europeans’ involvement in the future of european territorial cooperation
2020 marks 30 years of the EU’s flagship cooperation scheme called “Interreg”. The three main topics linked to the celebration of 30 years of achievements in making European borders an opportunity thanks to a cooperative spirit are: neighbours, green and youth.
As one of the three main topics of the Interreg 30-year campaign, “youth” aims to show that even if young people are already part of European Territorial Cooperation (ETC), much more can and should still be done. How? By collecting young people’s ideas and wishes on how to improve territorial cooperation in the future in order to make young generations feel heard by EU top decision makers.
This youth-oriented and democratic exercise in 2020 is not only topical because of the Interreg 30-year celebrative campaign but also because it’s a year of political changes between two EU budget periods, namely 2014-2020 and 2021-2027. Hence, 2020 is the best moment to express views in order to influence Interreg policy making and its projectbased implementation.
This Manifesto presents young people’s ideas on Interreg and especially on how to make it more in line with their expectations. It is mainly addressed to policy makers at EU, national, regional and local level as well as to Interreg Managing Authorities and project beneficiaries, organisations interested in EU cohesion – and especially Interreg - policy making, youth, citizens’ engagement and democratic participation.
The ideas presented here have been collected by European Commission staff via targeted surveys, polls and online group discussions with young people from all over Europe (i.e. EU, outermost regions and its neighboring countries).
EU Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms Elisa Ferreira and the German Presidency of the EU Council will receive the Manifesto on 15 October 2020 at the Interreg Annual Event during the dedicated youth dialogue, in the presence of some of the young people who have contributed. The aim is to debate and listen to EU top decision makers’ reactions to the Manifesto.