Council of Europe meeting ponders roadmap for implementing recommendation on rural youth participation

The meeting, held on 15-16 September, gathered youth delegates from the Council of Europe and representatives from civil society organisations, the French and Spanish ministries for youth, the European Rural Youth Observatory (EURYO) and the Rural Pact Support Office.

Discussions centred on how to develop a comprehensive roadmap for implementing Recommendation CM/Rec(2025)3 on the social, economic and political participation of rural youth. The goal is to ensure the recommendation is implemented at national, regional and local levels.

Participants agreed the roadmap should be practice oriented to ensure implementation of the recommendation and identified four implementation gaps that it could address - reach, the ability to act, governance and follow-through. They also suggested the roadmap should have a strategic focus, include milestones and support synergies between existing initiatives at different governance levels. 

The Council of Europe will now move ahead with preparing the roadmap, aiming for its adoption in March 2027. 

Sharing experiences with participants

Participants also received a sneak preview of an upcoming report from the CoE’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities – ‘Regional exodus in Europe: addressing the causes and creating new opportunities for rural communities’. 

The report is set to be debated during a Congress session this month. It explores the potential of local and regional authorities to create and stimulate new economic opportunities in rural communities which may attract or retain rural populations. 

Among its key fundings, the report notes that some regions could perform better by investing both in the modernisation of traditional sectors (like agriculture and tourism) and in new economic hubs and projects (e.g. business centres for start-ups equipped with digital technologies).

On top of this, the meeting saw presentations on the Rural Pact and its resources on rural youth, the European Rural Youth Parliament, EURYO’s strategic foresight toolbox, French initiatives and actions for young people in rural areas, the La Mesa! initiative in Spain (an interministerial working group on rural youth) and the Hungarian project Közös Lépés – Together for Participation. This was launched in 2024 by a group of young people who wanted to be more in touch with local decision-makers and support local democracy.

Discover the latest Rural Pact resources on youth and join the Community Group to connect and exchange with peers.