Youth for outermost regions: €1 million to support youth in the outermost regions
On 4th May 2022, the European Commission implemented the first concrete action of the renewed Strategy for the outermost regions of the EU that was adopted on 3rd May, by launching a €1 million call for proposals to help local young people shape projects to develop their regions.
Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, said: “Young people can become agents of change, entrepreneurs and innovators in their local communities. We need young people’s vision, engagement and participation in shaping the future of the EU, leaving no one and no region behind. We want to give young people in the outermost regions an opportunity to be makers of their own future. This is an opportunity to develop actions that will make a difference in these particularly remote and vulnerable regions”.
This call for proposals is the first step of a two-year project that, in the context of the 2022 European Year of Youth, will support at least 70 actions by young people aged 15-24. It will select an entity located in an outermost region which will manage the implementation of the project. The aim is to support young people in these vulnerable and remote regions to develop actions tailored to their regions to improve quality of life, development and growth.
Young people will need to develop ideas and community actions linked to EU priorities such as the green and digital transition, socio-economic recovery and equality and inclusion. A call for action for young people to benefit from these grants will be published by the end of the year. More details are available here. The outermost regions have a special status under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (article 349) that provides for specific measures to support them, including the tailored application of EU law and access to EU programmes.
The EU’s outermost regions are Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte, Réunion, Saint-Martin, the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands. (For more information: Stefan de Keersmaecker – Tel.: +32 229 84680; Veronica Favalli – Tel.: +32 229 87269)