Toolkit Youth 4 Reviving (stagnating) EU territories

Launched in January 2023, the Youth for reviving (stagnating) EU territories project was inspired by the youth policy dialogue conducted by the Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, in September 2022. During the dialogue, several young people from around the EU highlighted the issues that they and their peers were facing in their regions of origin that were leading to increasing levels of youth emigration/out-migration. The scope of the project was also shaped by the European Commission’s Communication on Harnessing Talent in Europe’s Regions. Published in January 2023, the Communication alludes to the impact that the trends of youth emigration/out-migration and brain drain could have on territorial, social, and economic cohesion in the EU. In this context, the Youth for reviving (stagnating) EU territories project aimed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the reasons that young Europeans have for leaving their regions of origin or staying there. The project also sought to identify policies that could attract young people who had left their regions of origin back home or encourage those who had not yet left to stay. To do this, the project team focused on three main tasks: 1. desk research, including interviews with colleagues in the European Commission who deal with youth-related or regional issues, 2. a multilingual, EU-wide questionnaire addressed to young Europeans aged between 15 and 29, including its dissemination across the 27 EU Member States, 3. visits to different regions in the EU affected by the issues of youth emigration/out-migration and brain drain namely in the Netherlands and Greece, as well as virtual visits to regions in Germany and Poland. These tasks and the results derived from them led to the production of the present toolkit.