Like the European Commission, the EU Council intends to make young people from third country partners allies in the implementation of the United Nations Development Programme and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
In conclusions adopted on Monday 28 November, without debate, the EU Council supports the first ever action plan for youth in the EU’s external relations, presented on 4 October (see EUROPE 13035/19).
It stresses that “young people around the world are essential and reliable partners” for this global agenda, “as well as other major multilateral agreements and instruments, including the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action”.
The EU Council would like to see young people from the EU’s third country partners more involved in decision-making processes.
It believes that a stronger engagement of the EU and its Member States with young people around the world is “a prerequisite to advancing democracy, the rule of law, the universality and indivisibility of human rights and fundamental freedoms, respect for human dignity and the principles of equality and solidarity, and can, in the long term, contribute to improving relations between the EU and its partner countries”.
It advocates for transformative approaches that address the root causes of gender inequality in policy and decision-making processes in order to promote youth, in particular the full participation and empowerment of women.
It calls on the Commission to ensure that 85% of the new actions implemented under the NDICI Global Europe (Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation) financial instrument of the EU budget have gender equality as an important principle or objective and that at least 5% of these actions have gender equality and the rights and empowerment of women and girls as their main objective.
See the EU Council conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/4bq (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)