Toolkit for Youth Participation in the Just Transition Fund

Posledná aktualizácia štvrtok, 11/02/2021

It encourages more ambitious, meaningful and numerous participation opportunities for youth.

The European Commission’s Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy recently published a 'Toolkit for Youth Participation in the Just Transition Fund'. It aims to encourage more ambitious, meaningful and numerous participation opportunities for youth in the regions targeted by the Just Transition Fund, as well as to ensure that the effects of such processes will lead to better-quality strategies and interventions addressing the challenges of the transition.

The Just Transition Fund, a pillar of the European Green Deal, aims to ease the economic and social impacts of the climate transition on regions most dependent on fossil fuels or carbon-intensive industries. The success of this initiative, and more broadly the transition to a climate-neutral economy, will rely on the ownership and buy-in of the concerned territories and their citizens. In this context, it is clear that young people have an important role to play: their future will be directly affected by the upcoming transition, and their needs, opinions, fears and hopes are an important part of the dialogue.

‘Our collective task is to seize the opportunity offered by the transition to a cleaner, more efficient economy: the opportunity to give new life to our regions for decades to come. We will only succeed if we share this journey with Europe’s youth.’

Marc Lemaître, Director-General, Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy

The toolkit offers principles, best practices and strategies that can help Managing Authorities maximise the meaningful participation of youth in the programming, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the fund. It is accompanied by an Annex providing detailed outlines of 30 best practice examples of youth participation from across Europe that are referenced throughout the toolkit.

The toolkit is addressed in particular at regional and local policy-makers responsible for implementation of the Just Transition Fund, as well as other stakeholders involved in the process, notably young people living in the transition regions, who could get inspired by the toolkit to actively advocate for their involvement in the JTF implementation.

While it is focused on the participation of young people in a just climate transition, the toolkit can be useful for other policies climate-related polices and beyond.

So take a look, be inspired and inspire!

Do you want to find out more about the toolkit? Get in touch with REGIO-G1-HEAD-OF-UNIT@ec.europa.eu.

In keeping with its ethos of empowering younger members of society to lead the change, the toolkit was prepared by four young officials within the framework of the European Commission’s Junior Professional Programme.