In 1988, the European Union was seeking its way out of an economic crisis and youth unemployment stood at around 20%. The Youth for Europe programme was born in order to respond to the young people’s call, who wanted to take part in the European life, as well as ease interactions between the Europeans and intensify experience sharing and good practice between all Member States.

The year 2013 corresponds to the 25 years of the European youth programmes.
Since 1988 and the beginning of the very first programme ( Youth I), more than 2.5 million young people, from 15 to 30 years old, took part to the several programmes dedicated to youth in the EU.

The actual programme , Youth in Action , promotes mobility, non-formal learning and intercultural dialogue among European youth, and encourages the inclusion of all young people, particularly those less fortunate, by supporting a large variety of activities, including youth exchanges, transnational voluntary service as well as training and networking for youth workers.

Between 2007 and 2011, more than 400 000 projects were found, with the partaking of no less than 725 000 youth in Europe.

The current programme is divided in 5 actions:

– Action 1 : Youth for Europe: Promoting young people’s active citizenship through Youth exchanges, youth initiatives and youth democracy projects
– Action 2 : European Voluntary Service: Developing solidarity and tolerance through Voluntary activities abroad to the benefit of local communities
– Action 3 : Youth in the World: Fostering mutual understanding while encouraging Cooperation with Partner countries of the world
– Action 4 : Youth Support Systems: Developing the quality of support systems for Youth activities and youth organisations
– Action 5 : European cooperation in the youth field: Encouraging European Cooperation in the youth field.

In 2013, as 25 years ago, youth employment rate is again a great concern and one of the main objectives of the Lisbon strategy, and is part of the Horizon 2020 goals for an intelligent, sustainable and inclusive growth. For the next programming period 2014-2020, the Youth in Action programme will take place trough the Erasmus For All Framework Programme. This gathering aims at an improved efficiency by the easing of the proceedings.