Youth in Action

Introduction

Youth in Action is the Programme the European Union has set up for young people. It aims to inspire a sense of active European citizenship, solidarity and tolerance among young Europeans and to involve them in shaping the Union's future. It promotes mobility within and beyond the EU's borders, non-formal learning and intercultural dialogue, and encourages the inclusion of all young people, regardless of their educational, social and cultural background: Youth in Action is a Programme for all.

Every year, thousands of projects are submitted by promoters in order to get financial support from the Programme; a selection process aims at granting the best projects.

Objectives

• The YOUTH IN ACTION programme is the EU’s mobility and non-formal education programme targeting young people aged between 13 and 30 years. Its general objectives are the following:
• Promote young people’s active citizenship in general and their European citizenship in particular;
• Develop solidarity and promote tolerance among young people, in particular in order to foster social cohesion in the European Union;
• Foster mutual understanding between young people in different countries;
• Contribute to developing the quality of support systems for youth activities and the capabilities of civil society organisations in the youth field;
• Promote European cooperation in the youth field.

Youth in the World

Action 3 of the Youth in Action programme opens up new horizons to European youth and youth organisations beyond the EU’s borders.

European Voluntary Service

The Youth in Action programme offers young Europeans the chance to make a real difference to the world – and to their own lives – through the European Voluntary Service.

The European Voluntary Service (EVS) provides young Europeans with the unique chance to express their personal commitment through unpaid and full-time voluntary activities in a foreign country within or outside the EU. In this way, it seeks to develop solidarity, mutual understanding and tolerance among young people, thus contributing to reinforcing social cohesion in the European Union and to promoting young people's active citizenship.

LIFELONG LEARNING PROGRAMME (LLP)

The Programme for EU Action in the Field of Lifelong Learning (the Lifelong Learning Programme – LLP) aims to contribute through lifelong learning to the development of the EU as an advanced knowledge society, with sustainable economic development, more and better jobs and greater social cohesion. In particular, it aims to foster interchange, co-operation and mobility between education and training institutions and systems within the EU so that they may become a world quality reference. In this way, it addresses the modernisation and adaptation of education and training systems in the participating countries, particularly in the context of the goals set out in the EU 2020

Strategy2, and brings European added value directly to individual citizens participating in its mobility and other co-operation actions. The programme's specific objectives are mentioned below. They ensure that the LLP supports and supplements action taken by the Member States and other participating countries, while fully respecting their responsibility for the content of education and training systems and their cultural and linguistic diversity.