Youth in Action

Period: 2007-2013

Budget: EUR 885 million

The main aim of the Youth in Action programme is to support experiences of European citizenship and solidarity among young people aged 13 to 30. It also aims to develop young's sense of initiative, creativeness and entrepreneurial spirit.

The specific objectives of the programme are:

• To promote young people's active citizenship in general and their European citizenship in particular

• To develop solidarity among young people

• To foster mutual understanding among people through youth

• To contribute to developing the quality of support systems for youth activities and the capabilities of civil society organisations in the youth field

• To promote European cooperation in youth policies

The Youth in Action programme will support the following lines of actions to achieve its given objectives:

1. Youth for Europe: the main aim of this action is to promote exchanges of young people in order to increase their mobility and support youth initiatives, projects and activities in order to develop young people's citizenship and mutual understanding.

2. European Voluntary Service: the aim of this action is to "gear up young people's” participation in different forms of voluntary activities within and outside the European Union.

3. Youth of the World: the purpose of this action is to develop mutual understanding among people in a spirit of openness. It opens up the programme to projects with the neighbouring countries of the enlarged Europe and to cooperation in the youth field with other third countries.

4. Youth Support Systems: aims to develop the quality of support structures for young people. This action helps to promote youth organisations active at the European level, in particular the European Youth Forum. It also supports the development of exchange, training and information schemes for young workers.

5. European Cooperation in the Youth Field: is aimed at promoting cooperation on youth policy, supporting a structured dialogue among young people and those responsible for youth policy, as well as building cooperation with international organisations.

Under the programme, natural persons may receive grants, and depending on the nature of the action, financial support may take the form of subsidies or scholarships.

The programme is open for the following countries: the Members States, the EFTA States that are party to the EEA Agreement, Turkey and the candidate countries of Central and Eastern Europe benefiting from a pre-accession strategy, Western Balkan countries and Switzerland.

Participating countries may use national funding available to beneficiaries to be managed in accordance with the rules of the programme and, to this end, use the decentralised structures of the programme, as long as it ensures the complementary proportionally funding of these structures.

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