Strengthening Participation, Inclusion, and Youth Work Across Europe
As the European Commission prepares the next EU Youth Strategy beyond 2027, a fundamental question, also raised during the kick-off of European Youth Week 2026, must be addressed:
How will the EU Youth Strategy effectively reach all young people in Europe?
Answering this question also requires recognising that the influence of the EU Youth Strategy extends beyond EU Member States. Candidate and neighbouring countries participating in European youth programmes and youth work processes should be able to align with, contribute to and benefit from the Strategy.
The current Strategy 2019-2027 has strengthened youth participation, cooperation and visibility. However, too many young people remain excluded. Participation is uneven, youth mainstreaming is inconsistent, and policies often fail to connect with young people’s realities. European programmes remain insufficiently known and accessible to many young people.
At the same time, the 4th European Youth Work Convention (Malta, 2025) has provided a clear and shared European direction: supporting young people requires not only commitments, but structures, systems and conditions that enable participation, inclusion and development in practice.
This position paper argues that:
A youth-centred EU Youth Strategy requires strong delivery systems that reach young people where they are, with youth work as a key enabler.
Youth work is not the objective of the Strategy, young people are.
However, without accessible and quality youth work:
- participation remains limited
- inclusion remains uneven
- policies remain disconnected from young people’s lives
AYWA therefore calls for the next EU Youth Strategy to:
- Strengthen meaningful youth participation and democracy by recognising the role of youth work in ensuring that diverse young people influence decision-making processes at all levels.
- Make youth mainstreaming operational, through concrete mechanisms such as the EU Youth Check, supported by real implementation structures.
- Establish youth work as a core pillar of the Strategy, recognising its role in enabling youth participation, inclusion and empowerment.
- Support youth work systems and youth workers, through recognition, governance, funding and professional development.
- Reinforce youth organisations and civic space, ensuring their independence, sustainability and role in representing young people.
- Ensure inclusion and equity by investing in local approaches that reach even more young people with fewer opportunities.
- Align the European Youth Goals with real delivery mechanisms, ensuring that they are implemented through concrete systems and structures.
- Strengthen Member State Ownership and Commitment, ensuring that the Strategy is effectively adopted and delivered at national level.
- Extend the Strategy’s reach to EU Candidate countries, ensuring youth benefit from aligned frameworks, cross-border mobility, and access to EU Youth dialogue mechanism and to EU funding support for capacity building and for democracy strengthening initiatives.
The next EU Youth Strategy must ensure that:
- participation is not only invited, but enabled
- policies are not only designed, but experienced by young people
- commitments are not only stated, but delivered in practice
The strategic priorities outlined above reflect AYWA’s key political positions for the future EU Youth Strategy. The following sections provide the broader rationale behind these positions, highlighting the current gaps, implementation challenges, and the role of youth work in ensuring that the Strategy effectively reaches and benefits all young people across Europe.
