The YOUTH Programme is the EU’s mobility and non-formal education programme and addresses young people aged between 15 and 25 who are legally resident in one of the Member States of the European Union or other Programme countries. The National Agencies are responsible for the promotion and implementation of the Programme at national level.

Those listed below can participate in the actions:

Action 1 - Youth for Europe:  Youth for Europe supports short-term group exchanges of young people aged 15 to 25. They provide these young people with an opportunity to meet young people from different countries. They have a pedagogical value and a non-formal learning aim, in that the groups explore common themes and learn about each other’s cultures.

Action 2 - European Voluntary Service (EVS): This action supports voluntary service for individuals aged 18 to 25. These young people may spend up to 12 months abroad as European volunteers helping in local projects in a wide range of fields such as social, ecological and environmental, arts and culture, new technologies, leisure and sports, etc.

Action 3 - Youth Initiatives: Projects carried out at local level by young people aged between 15/18 and 25. The intention is to give them a chance to develop as well as express their creativity and spirit of initiative. It also aims at providing former EVS volunteers with a concrete opportunity to build upon the expertise and skills acquired during their voluntary service.

Action 4 - Joint Actions: This Action offers the opportunity to develop projects linked to other EU Programmes. It  brings together the SOCRATES (education), LEONARDO DA VINCI (vocational training) and YOUTH (non-formal education) programmes. It will provide support for initiatives that build on the complementary nature of these three programmes and others, such as Culture 2000.

Action 5 - Support Measures: This action is a package of possibilities for support measures to develop new YOUTH projects and to improve their quality. These measures complement the other YOUTH programme actions, in order to increase their benefits, to continue and develop innovative actions at EU level, and to improve the quality of youth projects, such as through exchanges of good practices or training of project organizers.

In addition and complementary to the opportunities offered by Action 5, the European Commission launches annual calls, published in the Official Journal of the European Communities, for projects targeted at specific priorities in the fields of networking and partnership, training and information.

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