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Report of the Business Meeting of Erasmus+ Youth in Action National Agencies

Bucharest, 9 – 12 April 2019

Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 2

Day 1 & Day 2– 10th & 11th April 2019 ................................................................................ 2

1) Joint opening session with E&T NAs network .......................................................... 2

2) From Vienna to Bucharest ......................................................................................... 2

3) Setting the ground for internal consultation process ................................................ 3

4) Internal consultations on: Cross-sectorial issues , Future action formats, Horizontal themes (continued in Day 2 – 11th April) ..................................................... 3

5) Internal consultations – Consolidation of inputs - final NA Network Inputs for the Consultation Process ..................................................................................................... 4

I. Cross-sectorial issues.............................................................................................. 4

I.1. Community Building ........................................................................................ 4

I.2. TCA .................................................................................................................. 4

I.3. Environmental responsibility - low(er) carbon footprint Erasmus+ & European Solidarity Corps programmes ............................................................... 5

I.4. ME TOO - Safeguarding .................................................................................. 6

II. Future Action Formats .......................................................................................... 7

II.1. Youth Participation Activities ......................................................................... 7

II.2. Discover EU .................................................................................................... 8

II.3. Youth exchanges ............................................................................................ 9

II.4. Youth worker mobility ................................................................................. 10

II.5. Cooperation Partnerships ............................................................................ 12

III. Horizontal Themes ............................................................................................ 13

III.1. Inclusion and diversity ................................................................................ 13

III.2. EU Youth Dialogue ..................................................................................... 14

III.3. Human rights education ............................................................................. 14

III.4. Strengthening youth work quality .............................................................. 15

III.5. Virtual cooperation ..................................................................................... 16

6) Exchange with the E&T network ............................................................................. 17

7) Open agenda: Peer learning time ............................................................................ 17

Day 3 – 12th April 2019 .................................................................................................... 17

8) Network News ......................................................................................................... 17

9) Managing and implementing youth information – Eurodesk input ....................... 18

10) KMST activities and the new Network website ..................................................... 18

10) Next Business Meeting .......................................................................................... 18

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Introduction The Business Meeting of Erasmus+ Youth in Action National Agencies, entitled “Future is Coming!” took place in Bucharest during 9-12 April 2019 in parallel with the Informal Meeting of Directors of Erasmus+ Education and Training National Agencies. The main objectives of the meeting were:

To agree on the Network’s inputs for the consultation process about the future Erasmus+ programme;

To get updated about relevant European developments and the Network’s activities;

To clarify the process of implementation of youth information between NAs and Eurodesk;

To plan and organise forthcoming KMST activities;

To support networking, peer learning and sharing of good practices. The meeting was organized as part of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The meeting documents are available on the Business Meeting website: http://youthbm.voog.com/bmdocuments .

Day 1 & Day 2– 10th & 11th April 2019

1) Joint opening session with E&T NAs network Representatives of RO Presidency, Augustin Mihalache and Lucian Mircescu, gave an update on the main activities and priorities in the fields of Education, Training and Youth under the Romanian Presidency. Representatives of European Commission, Jose-Manuel Fernandez-Arroyo and Marta Gutierrez-Benet, presented the overview of the consultation process about the future Erasmus+ programme after 2020, highlighting that it has been a co-creation phase with:

- 30 working groups organized, 2 NA meetings, 1 Erasmus Committee meeting, 1 workshop with NAUs, 39 internal working groups

- 18 working groups with national agencies (6 transversal, 5 HE, 1 SE, 4 Youth, 1 VET, 1 AE)+ internal working groups EC (design of actions, implementing partners, business requirements, active outreach)

- 2 horizontal working groups on programme simplification and inclusion Presentations available at: http://youthbm.voog.com/bmdocuments

2) From Vienna to Bucharest Guoda Lomanaitė (LT) presented the main activities carried out by the network since the previous Business Meeting in Vienna:

- Towards the EC: meeting with the EC to discuss outcomes of the Vienna meeting; letter on IT issues experienced in 3rd deadline of 2018 call;

- Towards other actors: coordination meetings with Eurodesk; Youth and E & T co-group representatives meetings and joint letter to EC on budget implications of Brexit;

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- Within the network: finalized network work plan and map, updated KMST strategy, preparation of the launch of the website of the network.

3) Setting the ground for internal consultation process The session had the aim to set the frame for the internal consultation process within the Network for the new programme. Starting from an Input on EU Youth Strategy action points for the new programme (Serena Angioli, Giuseppe Gualtieri - IT) and the summary of conclusions from the 3 RAY researches (Reet Kost - EE), table discussions were organized on:

What do we learn from EYS and RAY that we need to take to the reflections about the future programme?

What do we need to keep in mind when thinking about the future programme? The inputs were collected on Mentimeter and are available at: http://youthbm.voog.com/bmdocuments . Main issues highlighted as important to keep in mind:

- Political/citizenship dimension - Digitalization - Youth work development - More flexibility - Investment: expectations - Rethinking basic concepts (e.g. youth exchanges, inclusion etc.).

4) Internal consultations on: Cross-sectorial issues , Future action formats, Horizontal themes (continued in Day 2 – 11th April) Three rounds of internal consultations were organized, clustered in 3 main areas with the following topics:

1) Cross-sectorial issues:

Community Building

TCA and SALTO

Environmental responsibility

ME TOO 2) Future action formats in the new programme:

Participation projects

Discover EU

Youth exchanges

YW mobility

Strategic Partnerships 3) Horizontal themes:

Inclusion and Diversity

EU Youth Dialogue

Human rights Education

Strengthening youth work

Virtual cooperation Within each session, table discussions were organized for each topic with the support of several guiding questions and thematic handouts prepared by the Co-group members before the meeting summarizing the main developments on the topics. Outcomes of table discussions were collected on Padlet and are available at: http://youthbm.voog.com/bmdocuments .

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5) Internal consultations – Consolidation of inputs - final NA Network Inputs for the Consultation Process Based on the results of the previous 3 internal consultation sessions, the NA’s representatives analyzed the collected input and agreed on things to keep, to further discuss or to delete from the joint text. Further on, after the meeting, the Co-group made a final revision of the consolidated text, summarizing the final NA Network Inputs for the Consultation Process, presented below:

I. Cross-sectorial issues

I.1. Community Building The NA network supports the thinking that it is important to build a community of young people who participated or are going to participate in one of the European Youth Programmes. Community Building could serve various aims. Main aim of the Community would be to inspire other young people to participate in one of the Erasmus+ or European Solidarity Corps Activities. Experienced young people could serve as a reference point to potential or current participants. Experience from recent years shows that it is difficult to keep young people involved in the Erasmus+ programme. Therefore we urge involved stakeholders to start from the perspective of young people, ask them why they would be involved and what would make that they will remain with the network and to start the development of the concept based on this motivation. The network urges the importance to develop one community for both programmes, involving different activities for different target groups. In addition, the network requests to align all current activities on community building like ESC Peers, EuroPeers and Role Models. The initiatives should strengthen each other. In addition, the wording “alumni” should be changed. In addition, community building activities should be linked to programme implementation and youth information networks. The NA supports the concept to develop both central and decentralised Community Building activities. Local activities are important. Many countries have good working EuroPeer networks. Other countries have the wish to develop them. Commission, NAs and local organisations should work together to stimulate local community building activities. Ideas to stimulate at decentralised level are:

Bottom up approach as much as possible

Involve local organisations in the development of a community

Smaller organisations could be helped by bigger organisations

Support from NA’s: a) budget for activities; b) training; c) Motivation Events (both Com and NAs)

Motivation events are important to involve the members of the network and important to the programme. E.g. invite them for EYE, EYW, Event during Presidency.

I.2. TCA The Network of NAs in E+ YIA and ESC is giving the following recommendations for the preparation of the implementation of TCA / NET in the new programme:

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1. The Network agrees on the recommendations of the Programme Management WG on TCA. These recommendations should be taken into account when preparing TCA / NET for the future programmes. 2. Beyond these recommendations we ask to further explore opportunities, pros and cons of the following in order to improve the implementation practice of TCA and NET:

- options for a more flexible and easier use of the budget of TCA / NET should be considered, for example lump sums for sendings (not for hosting!) or using TCA budget like management fee.

- having only one single budget for TCA and NET together (not two different) for each NA because the aims, objectives, purposes and content of these activities is too similar to differentiate. In such a case, national activities should be possible for the whole budget.

- NA staff costs related to TCA / NET management and activities should be eligible and fixed in clear and supporting rules which acknowledge the effort of implementing TCA / NET as a whole and each if the activities, to safeguard an equal European cooperation and to guarantee a high quality of projects.

3. The network is emphasizing again the need to align rules, processes and instruments of TCA and NET to the maximum, finally they should be the same. In order to improve the quality of TCA / NET implementation practice, the network has agreed on the following: 1. The Network agrees on the proposals for further actions made by the TCA/NET WG. 2. Beyond these proposals we are proposing to take also the following actions: - We as a network should support than now the strategic planning in each of the NAs and of the network of NAs and should take the right steps to do that. The TCA/NET WH should propose ways of improved strategic planning, which allow for a stronger European cooperation dimension as well as strengthen the independent planning of each NA along their national realities. - The proposed meeting of NAs with RAY CAP researchers is still necessary to talk about quality standards and common approaches among NAs. - Based on this, the existing Quality standards in TCA/NET implementation should be looked at and renewed and serve as a strong common basis for TCA / NET officers in all NAs in implementation of TCA / NET activities. - The TCA/NET WG is asked to look into to current procedures for planning of activities and the existing timetables (with related meetings, e.g. TCA/NET officer meeting) to further strenghten a two steps planning approach (1. step: opening up ideas, 2. step: agreeing on cooperation). - A Cooperation platform of NAs for TCA and NET implementation (as proposed by TCA / NET WG) is very much and as soon as possible needed 3. There is an overlap of aims, objectives and activities under NET and Quality Label budget in ESC. One budget for both should be kept.

I.3. Environmental responsibility - low(er) carbon footprint Erasmus+ & European Solidarity Corps programmes The Erasmus+ programme is major success of the European Union. The prospect is to increase the number of participants to reach 12 million between 2021 and 2027 for the next generation of Erasmus+. There is no doubt that the travelling due to Erasmus+ over one year corresponds to several hundred million kilometres and is responsible for

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thousands of tons equivalent CO2 released in the atmosphere. Also the Erasmus+ programme contributes to the global warming. Global warming and the dramatic forthcoming impact on societies all over the World are new challenges which need to be addressed within the programme. Also the programme(s) has to take over environmental responsibility. The topic was discussed during the programme management working group and during youth business meeting in Bucharest. Current proposals are as the following: 1. NAs and COM should apply green office policies to set an example, also through promoting virtual cooperation (e.g. online meeting facilities, less printing etc.). 2. The youth goals should be promoted related to environmental issues. 3. NAs should offer training on environmental awareness, including online training, to its target group(s) and beneficiaries. 4. The environmental issues should be introduced in the application forms and a priority in the award criteria. Similarly, the item should be introduced in the workplan of the NAs and the yearly report and clearly emphasized in all reference documents (programme guide, NA guide etc). NAs should be encouraged to have an environmetal friendly policy and an optional section in the workplan could be made available for the NAs to present their policy/plan. 5. There is a need to introduce a recognition system – consider green projects label. 6. Participants should be able to choose the travel means and extra budget should be made available (extra days included). 7. EC and NAs should not only focus on travel (which is the most damaging one for the environment), but also on other issues (food, accommodation etc. during the events – they should behave like good examples). 8. The eligibility of a compensation for GGE system at central level should be examined and/or beneficiaries should be motivated and inspired by NAs/EC to compensate. 9. Awareness should be raised in all projects so that participants can further disseminate the practice after the project.

I.4. ME TOO - Safeguarding Programme Documentation The Network request the Commission, as they have in the past, to include an outline of safeguarding requirements for the future programme, and that there is coherent reflection of this in relevant Programme Documentation eg application forms. (Minimum points that need to be in the risk analysis: sexual harassment, injuries and etc.). In order to avoid adding further complexity to the forms the network had discussed a supplementary policy or guide to develop these common approaches in projects. The Network encourages the Commission to carry out a review of past practices in the Youth In Action Programme and Guidelines for Good Practice for young person Safety in Youth Exchange. NA Information/Guidance The Network suggests that the Commission set out a common procedure for NA’s in how to deal with cases, reporting requirements including - Information and guidance to beneficiaries - Where should the participants send complaints Contract clarification

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Safeguarding requirements should be explicit in the contract with beneficiaries and provide the NA with powers to implement change or conditionally suspend/limit organizations from re-entering with bad practice in the programme (not only in the safeguarding elements but more generally). Online safeguarding In addition to Safeguarding pf participant in physical mobility we need to extend Safeguarding to take into account virtual exchange and digitisation of the programme(s) (e.g. guidelines on what is appropriate, what agreements need to be made between partners. How to avoid online bullying etc.) Training The NA Network discussed the need for Staff training and further engagement and exploration in the topic so a next for the Network should be; -To investigate options for Staff Training on Safeguarding under KMST/ several NAs to self-organize and pilot a Safeguarding training for NA staff. -To set up "Adhoc" working group to gather existing materials, develop guidelines/checklist for beneficiaries, prepare training content. To carry out a review of current practices to see what more exists with regard to e.g. prevention of online harassment of minors, etc. This working group could include the Commission in order to take relevant parts of the topic of Safeguarding cross-sectorally for E&T actions in the Programme.

II. Future Action Formats

II.1. Youth Participation Activities Link the EU Youth Goals to the Erasmus KA1 ­ Youth Participation Activities format. The EU Youth Goals are sufficiently broad and serve as good framework for the Youth Participation Activities (YPA) format in Erasmus 2021-2027 programme. It's a way to advance and acknowledge that the EU Youth Goals are important and raising the awareness on those as well as focusing the YPA projects around the Goals. Establishing such framework for YPA would not contradict with the principle of youth participation as EU Youth Goals have been identified and agreed by young people in Europe and 11 goals leave enough space for young people planning a project to choose the topic that interest them and to set the agenda for specific project. Next to youth led projects, the Youth Participation Activities should also be open for initiatives coming from policy and decisionmakers as there are situations where decisionmakers need to call a process to start up a dialogue with youth. A strong youth presence and participation from the beginning is however still very important in these projects. In order to see that the project can arrive at a clear impact (effect the decisions and policy making), its recommended to have policy output (clear recommendations). The projects are funded usually as a dialogue process, but they could including a budget line for advocacy or other follow-up processes/activities enabling and influencing the decisions/change etc., only to be "activated" after an interim report is submitted with a clearer activity plan for this last phase, after the first result of a project.

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The objective of the YPA format should be more explicit giving importance to youth influence and empowerment. It should lead to youth having the decision-making power on issues important to them and effecting their lives. Important to take part in, express views on and influence decisions.

II.2. Discover EU Scope of the programme The NA Network requests to enlarge the scope of DiscoverEU and include all programme countries. In continuation of that the name should be changed into Discover Europe. Targeted Call for Young People with Fewer Opportunity The NA Network supports the idea of a targeted call for young people with fewer opportunities. However, the network requests to open this for all young people that face obstacles to participate in DiscoverEU via the regular way. The call should be open for organisations working with this target group. Organisations should be asked to describe properly what the aim of participation in this targeted call is, why it is needed and what the learning element is. The call should be as flexible as possible. Therefore, organisations should not yet include the names and ages of the selected young people in the project proposal. However, question for the Commission is how to check upon the age limit and the real participation of people with fewer opportunities. The targeted call should include a fee per day for food and accommodation, calculated for example on the inclusion support method. In addition, it should include a small management fee for the organisation. The call should stay close to the objectives of DiscoverEU. Therefore young people should travel alone or in groups of young people. Accompanying staff should only be allowed for young people with special needs. Quality and Support Measures As expressed before, many NAs attach importance to the learning component of DiscoverEU. The NA Network supports the quality and support measures mentioned in the proposal. However, some NAs also underline the discovery aspect of the call; a starting point for learning and entry to other types of projects. Therefore the learning component should not be compulsory, but open to interested participants. The network would like to mention the following suggestions:

DiscoverEU should make use of one of the existing portals (not develop a new one).

A survival kit could be added: a place where participants can pose questions to experienced organisations or former participants.

The learning experiences should be optional, light and easy to access.

The (different) objectives of each learning activity should be clear, so these activities can be clearly promoted to the target groups.

Stepping stone: project applications for Erasmus+ or European Solidarity Corps that result from participation in DiscoverEU should get extra credits.

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Long-term Partnerships The network supports the idea of introducing a partnership concept. With respect to the described concept, the NAs would highlight the following issues:

The network asks the Commission to change the name, e.g. into “partners in discovery”

The idea to introduce a label/partnership is being questioned. Other opportunities should be discussed.

Organisations should be able to apply throughout the year

Organisations should be asked to describe the learning experience of the activity they offer; the partnerships should not add a touristic label to DiscoverEU

The partnership should not include a budget for the organisation.

Young people should be able to find the organisations on the same platform (no new IT tools)

Young people should be able to rate the quality of the activities; Based on that the NA can suspend the partnership.

II.3. Youth exchanges The Network of NAs is giving the following recommendations for the preparation of the implementation of youth exchanges in the new programme: Application forms: The network supports the idea that there should be 2 separate application forms, one for youth exchanges and one for mobility of youth workers. . The application form for youth exchanges should be simplified and finetuned in terms of questions, however being careful not to overcomplicate it, in reference to the environmental awareness, #metoo issue etc. In terms of youth led exchanges, as already discussed in the Consultative WG, it is not totally clear what youth led means and how this is linked to the national youth work realities. However, the network acknowledges that this is the ideal situation but also the option that organisations introduce applications should be possible. There should be one single application form both for youth-led and organisation-led projects, but with some specific questions for each type and proportionality principle should be applied. This is because youth-led can take place in different phases of the project, as well as there are some grey areas between the two. The introduction of a specific application form for newcomers to the action could also be considered. Eligibility rules: The network proposes to keep the current eligibility rules but to include the possibility for inclusion groups (in justified cases) to be less than 16 as minimum number of participants and have less activity days, however with the need to have a specified minimum number of days and participants. Funding: The network emphasizes that youth exchanges should be funded as a process, whatever the funding model. Also, youth exchanges are about groups, so the funding model should consider groups and not the individual participant funding per day. The possibility of group travel funding should also be explored.

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Inclusion: In order to make youth exchanges more inclusive, staff time for inclusion groups should be eligible during the whole process. In terms of budget categories, there should be only one category both for inclusion and exceptional costs. In order to avoid discussions on double funding with auditors, it should be made clear in the programme guide that organisational costs can be topped up by exceptional costs. Costs connected to board and lodging of participants during an Advance Planning Visit should become a part of organisational support in order to encourage the applicants to include AVPs in majority of cases.. Implications of the proposed Mobility Charter KA1 for youth exchange: The network emphasizes that the introduction of the Charter should mean less work for NAs. With the introduction of the Charter, we should look at a model that promotes long-term youth work/organisational development and not just a way to apply for a single action format.

II.4. Youth worker mobility Development of Youth Work RAY Summary results indicate that “Mobility” is an instrument for achieving the objectives of the Programmes, The Network agrees that further options should be considered by the Commission in building this format which relate to development of and contribution to Youth Work. The Network has discussed two ways to do this: 1. Youth worker mobility is part of the solution, not THE only solution to development of youth work, Keep the format as it is and further align the youth worker mobility projects more to the priorities of European youth work agenda, and ensure that the new format supports a range of follow up activities which support the transfer of experience and linking it with the organisations involved ( and others if relevant). 2. The NA Network suggest changing the name of the format change to represent the following wider objectives :

- The Network is emphasizing the need to strengthen the capacity building of youth leaders/ workers through a format, which supports young youth workers/ leaders to develop and train for the future.

- The Network is emphasizing the need to strengthen the impact on organisation by ensuring that participants have a strong link to a youth work organisation / practice.

- The Network is emphasizing the need to strengthen the impact on Youth Work by supporting the pathway for professional development of youth leaders/ youth worker to be competent as European Youth Work

- In addition to the Development of Youth Work, actions the Network agrees should be an additional OPEN FORMAT to allow for entry or experimentation.

- The Network would like to ensure that the activities included under this format link clearly with youth workers competence models (working nationally or transnationally) and if relevant any national recognition systems?

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EU Youth Strategy During the Business Meeting in Bucharest, the Network reflected on the EU Youth Strategy and mapped many of its objectives against the Erasmus+ / ESC and future programme(s). It is clear that the strategy has high expectations for the programme(s) and for the mobility of Youth Worker Format. The Network would like to bring the attention of the Commission to the imbalance between current investment and future ambition for this format and request that the future Programme(s) provide resources for the format to more equally match the ambitions for this type of action in EU Youth strategy. The Network is also careful to note that for some Programme Countries there is no National Youth Work or youth strategy to link to, and that this format could bridge this gap by for instance developing TCA’s ( at national level) which could bring these EU Youth Strategy objectives for youth work and youth workers from the grass roots. Charter/ Accreditation Many National Agencies would like further discussion on this model, with a view to ensuring suitable application in the Youth field. The National agencies request that the Commission examine the funding available under this format to ensure that any Charter/ Accreditation model can properly support the objectives of the format and ensure wide access to the opportunities contained in the format. Based on the current level of funding for this mobility type the network feels that a Charter /Accreditation may not be relevant. The Commission must ensure that the introduction of this model should not limit the participation of newcomers. Accreditation should not mean funding priority. The Network requests that the Commission provide flexibility for NA’s to decide how and if charter can best be implemented to fit in the national reality. The Network believes Charter/ Accreditation models should be for experienced beneficiaries with a specified track record organisations - demonstrating strategic level of impact via an Internationalization plan. In preparing this format the Network request that the Commission provide analysis of the challenging experience of the ESC Partnership volunteering projects and in particular the contracting to see how the quality implementation can be ensured in order not to repeat past complexities. It is very important to the Network that NA’s are provided with a clear charter/ accreditation process which reflects balance between reducing the barrier to entry provided by accreditation and the need for monitoring by NA. Linked to this NA's need resources (funded) to ensure monitoring of quality Funding The Network request that the Commission provide a clear proposal for funding models along with the charter/ accreditation proposal. It is essential that any proposed unit costs are structured to the objectives of the actions. It is also essential that the action be adequately funded to take into account all of the above.

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II.5. Cooperation Partnerships The mid-term evaluation of Erasmus+ revealed that the KA2 projects reach a relatively low level of innovation, contrary to the expectations at the start of the programme. Another conclusion was a weak system of monitoring (compared to KA1) of participants, outputs and learning effects. The general concern on the complexity of the programme was also targeting the KA2 : the structure of the projects and its funding made up a format that was not very accessible for small scale organisations. Taking up the elements of the evaluation, the Commission proposed two types of projects : partnerships for innovation (managed on central level) and cooperation partnerships (decentralised). The E+ National Agencies in the field of youth focussed their discussion on the cooperation partnerships. The introduction of small scale partnerships was highly welcomed as a way to make this action more accessible for more applicants and to bring the European dimension closer to the local level. However, it was felt that the change of name for this kind of projects (from “strategic” to “cooperation”) is not very helpful in view of a sustainable communication about this action. “Strategic” partnerships should be kept as format name. In terms of objectives for this action, the network of National Agencies in the youth field agreed to a large extent that these objectives should be relevant for youth work and youth policy in Europe. The impact of the projects and the action should be as such that it leads to influencing, transformation and change in the youth field. The future programme guide should clearly define these objectives and differentiate this action in the youth field from other sectors; Being relevant for youth work means that projects should support the development of quality of youth work and the internationalisation of youth work. However, in order to have a better understanding among the wider public in different fields, a more clear description of youth work is needed, and a more clear delimitation from the work done by other sectors with target groups that are in the same age bracket (eg. school or university students). Descriptions of youth work, as they have been developed at European level, to the extent where there exists a common ground, should be used for that. Being relevant for youth policy in Europe clearly refers to implementing his action as a tool to support the EU Youth Strategy. Depending on the perspective, this approach may be focussing on the EUYS principles - Connect, Engage, Empower - or be further broadened to the 11 EU Youth Goals, that have quite a wide thematic range. If possible projects should be connected with the FNAPS – Future National Activity Planners in the EUYS. The format of partnerships should create space for experimentation and, to a certain extent, accept the risk of failing that comes inevitably with it. Also research activities should be possible as embedded parts of a partnership project. The action should have a budget available that allows, also in smaller countries, to have a critical mass of finances available to grant several larger projects with more important impact. It would be useful to have a dedicated amount for dissemination activities within the action budget, available at NA level. This could be granted to projects that need a stronger dissemination effort because of their quality or impact.

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On project level, the actual grant amounts for coordination of projects is insufficient and affecting the quality of projects. This should be increased. The differences in grants for staff costs, depending on the countries, leads to frustrations in the project team, as the final result of the project has a similar impact in all the countries of the partnerships. The country rates need to be revised.

III. Horizontal Themes

III.1. Inclusion and diversity In line with the high priority for inclusion in the programme proposal of the Commission, the aim is to create an Inclusion Strategy for the whole programme (including all sectors), and not only for the Youth field as is now the case. This is based on the analysis that inclusive results of the past implementation of the programme, are good and visible in the youth field, but less (present and/or visible) in other sectors. The overall strategy should give a boost to all sectors. It will also cover the European Solidarity Corps. National Agencies in the Youth field welcome the renewal of the strategy but agree that it should remain an Inclusion and Diversity strategy, as these are two components of the same objective. National Agencies need the time to develop a common understanding on how the strategy should be implemented. They should however have their own action plan to implement according to the realities in their countries. The SALTO Inclusion and Diversity Resource Centre should support NA’s in the development of action plans, including through networking between National Agencies. The National Agencies work plans needs to provide the space to explain better what the NA´s objectives are regarding young people with fewer opportunities. National Agencies should have the flexibility to adapt according to needs in their country, to needs in different parts of the youth field and to periodical or temporary developments. The strategy should focus on 3 distinctive levels :

- The overall accessibility of programmes through its communication, reference documents, administrative approaches (forms, IT tools) and procedures.

- The pro-active approach needed to involve specific groups of young people, helping to overcome obstacles for their participation.

- The actions and ways of working that NA’s have at their disposal to make the programmes (more) inclusive.

Accessibility of the programmes Although the issue is far from new, it has never before been linked to the Inclusion Strategy. Use of simple language and clear terminology in the several documents is key to inclusion. An “inclusive design” for documents and tools is needed from the very first step of their development. The programmes should offer a “rich menu” of opportunities, open to all types of participants. Pro-active approach A good knowledge on the target groups the programmes want to reach is needed. In that respect the 7 obstacles that are part of the current I&D strategy are useful and have been confirmed. This “list” should however not be seen and used as to restrictive. Combinations of multiple obstacles are very common in real life.

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Ways of working of National Agencies An clear approach on implementing the inclusion strategy should be put in place in each National Agency. National Agencies should internally shape their way of working, leading to a transversal and coordinated approach in each NA. A dedicated inclusion officer in the NA can be part of that approach as this has the potential to realise an even better impact regarding inclusion and diversity. The “supported approach” with tailor made support and coaching for beneficiaries with specific profile or facing obstacles, should be revived. As well as other methods like “proportionality” and “reinforced mentorship”.

III.2. EU Youth Dialogue The NAs are important players in the EU Youth Dialogue process, and should therefore be represented in the National Working Groups. This can lead to a closer link between the Youth Dialogue Process and Programme implementation on national level. Nonetheless the involvement of the National Agency can lead to a potential conflict of interest while they are both offering funding but also can act as expertise collectors. This should be addressed and the role of the NAs clarified. TCA/NET are important tools to support the National Working groups in their work and provide an international/European dimension: A regular Meeting of National Working group (one per EUYD Cycle) should be organized to facilitate the exchange of approaches and good practices. TCA activities can also play an important role in organizing activities around priorities/themes of the Trio Precedencies or the EU Youth Dialogue as a whole. The national consultations involving the local level are an important element in the EUYD process, therefore an increase an involvement of stakeholders on local level is needed to ensure transferability and sustainability of outcomes to the local reality of young people. Making the effects of participation of young people visible to them is key in the success of the EUYD - in that regard the 18 month cycles of the EUYD are a challenge and are catering more to needs on national/European level. Future formats should be explored to make young people who participated see the impact their participation had/could have. The EU Youth dialogue is going to be supported within the future programme and a more indepth.discussion regarding the how it should be achieved and what should be the role of the NAs in this process is needed in future Business Meetings.

III.3. Human rights education How to integrate Human Rights Education more explicitly in the Erasmus programme? Systematic NA staff training on HRE (linked to youth work and the programmes) and transnational trainings for trainers and youth workers is needed in order to use programmes strategically, this is a core competence that both, the staff of the NA’s as wel as the youth workers need. Set Human Rights (and youth rights in particular) as a theme for the European Youth Week. Encourage cross-sectoral cooperation between education and youth workers and the NA’s.

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Set priority to youth workers training on Human Rights Education in the Erasmus KA1 format. Youth workers mobility projects as well as in KA2 (strategic partnership) projects should have more systemic effect (including through cross-sectorial cooperation projects). Resources (educational tools, key organisations, good practice examples, educational concepts and training programmes for trainers and youth workers at transnational and national level) that have been mapped and developed so far should be made available to youth field actors through SALTO-Youth platform and through NA's related activities. Human Rights awareness should be supported through strategic communication – NA’s should rise the awareness on Human Rights linked to youth work through EU programmes promotion and communication (youth rights and participation, active citizenship related objectives of the EUYS, EU Youth Goals). The networks of HRE trainers/activists should be supported and advanced by the programme and TCA activities.

III.4. Strengthening youth work quality In order to strengthen the link between the programme and youth work and the impact on youth work development and policies the following actions should be taken: 1. The Programme Guide for the new programme needs to give a more clear orientation on the role of the programme and its actions for the development of youth work and the link to the EY Youth Strategy. 2. Every action and format needs to have a precise description of the specific aims and objective with the link also to youth work. 3. There is a high risk of overlap of aims and objectives regarding youth work in the different actions, especially between KA 1 / YWM and KA2. Therefor the following profiles of the different KAs should be taken into account in the development of the Programme Guide

- The Main focus in KA 1 MoYW should be on capacity building of individual youth workers and the transfer into the organisation in order to support quality youth work.

- The main focus in KA 2 should be on the cooperation of different actors / organisations in youth work for the further development of youth work practices and policies.

- The main focus in KA 3 should be on the support of organisations, platforms and structures in youth work at European level.

5. KA 3 / support of organisations / networks / platforms should also be used to bring up, disseminate, exploit and capitalize the results from the very different projects in the other actions. 6. In all of actions there should be a strong involvement of organisations and actors from the youth work sector in order to allow the transfer of results and a sustainable impact into youth work practices and policies.

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7. There should be a virtual platform to support (the development of) the community of practice in youth work, like it exist for example in E-twinning in the school sector – either by creating a new platform, further developing the existing and/or linking the existing platforms 8. There should be somewhere in the programme a sufficient and strong space for research and knowledge building in youth work foreseen - until now it is still missing. Strenghtening youth work quality should be sufficiently funded so all NA can support at least a few 'larger' projects.

III.5. Virtual cooperation This topic hasn’t been discussed very much until now in working groups and the only exact explanation on it is in the programme proposal in its definition: “Virtual cooperation means any form of cooperation using information technology and communications tools.” According to the programme proposal, the new programme should be more inclusive by improving its outreach to those with fewer opportunities, including through more flexible learning mobility formats, and by fostering participation of small organisations, in particular newcomers and community-based grassroots organisations that work directly with disadvantaged learners of all ages. Virtual formats, such as virtual cooperation, blended and virtual mobility, should be promoted to reach more participants, in particular those with fewer opportunities and those for whom moving physically to a country other than their country of residence would be an obstacle. The use of new and flexible formats should be promoted to broaden the reach of the programme (such as virtual cooperation, short term and group mobility). To increase the use of virtual cooperation activities, the programme should support a more systematic use of the online platforms. In March 2018, the European Commission launched first pilot projects for potential future virtual cooperation under the format of Virtual Exchange(s), a project to promote intercultural dialogue and improve the skills of at least 25,000 young people through digital learning tools over the two years. The project covers the 33 Erasmus+ programme countries and the Southern Mediterranean region. More can be found at homepage for Virtual Exchanges:https://europa.eu/youth/erasmusvirtual In EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027, this kind of complementary cooperation is defined as a need to “ensure safe virtual youth spaces are accessible to every young person which provide access to information and services as well as ensure opportunities for youth participation”. The National Agencies would propose not to create any exact and specific format and to leave it open to create flexible complementary activities to mobility and cooperation projects. Those aspects are already seen in Erasmus+. The ambition should not to be to reduce number of physical mobilities but to create supporting and complementary activities and through them to bring added value to projects. Each project may be (at least) partly digital: those aspects should be already explained in application form and the programme shouldn´t force anybody to do it but on the contrary to provide space for those formats and to motivate beneficiaries to use them.

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There is no need to create completely new platform but potentially extend what is available already now (SALTO platform) – to provide tools to create MOOCs, to share and to communicate. The work can be started already now by organizing TCA activity on digital cooperation within youth work. Relevant lessons can be learned from outcomes and recommendations by Digital Youth Work expert group – see more in:Policy recommendations, training needs and good practice examples for youth workers and decision-makers : expert group set up under the European Union Work Plan for Youth for 2016-2018→https://publications.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/fbc18822-07cb-11e8-b8f5-01aa75ed71a1

6) Exchange with the E&T network A bilateral exchange between delegations from each network (youth and education & training) took place in order to brief participants on the developments of the parallel meetings.

7) Open agenda: Peer learning time The meeting provided space for participants to propose topics to discuss with colleagues. Discussions were organized on the following topics:

Projects going under the radar

Participant fees

Organizational development in the NAs Discussion outcomes were collected in Padlet and are available at: http://youthbm.voog.com/bmdocuments .

Day 3 – 12th April 2019

8) Network News Space was provided for participants to share news on the activities and events going on in the NAs/network:

- EPLM network (European Platform for Learning Mobility): availabe app qualitymobility.app – 16 steps to a perfect project;

- Slovenia – consultative meetings on cooperation with partner countries – 18-20 Sept. 2019, Lubliana – national agencies are invited to send participants;

- European academy on youth work – dedicated page where public can follow the preparations – eayw.net – first edition, 21-24 May 2019 , Slovenia

- European Conference on human rights education in the context of youth work – 29 Oct. 209, Tallin – national agencies are invited to send participants;

- Third European Youth Work Convention in the framework of the EU presidency of Germany, Dec. 2020 – national agencies are invited to send participants;

- Romania - June 2019, CONNECTOR – TCA event that brings youth workers from all over Europe together – national agencies are invited to send participants;

- Lithuania – 4th Eastern European Youth Partnership – June 2019 – invitation to send participants;

- Europe Goes Local strategic partnership – a charter will be available on quality of youth work at local level.

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9) Managing and implementing youth information – Eurodesk input Audrey Frith, Eurodesk Brussels Link was invited to the meeting and delivered a presentation on Eurodesk structure and governance and current activities and developments, including in the context of the new EU Youth Strategy. Audrey also highlighted that:

- The Youth Portal will be revised in order to be more attractive for young people; - For the new programme, a task force will be set up in order to build a common

narrative; - Measures are needed in order to engage more the network of multipliers.

Discussions followed on ways to enhance cooperation between NAs and Eurodesk for managing and implementing youth information, both in the context of the current and future programme.

The presentation is available at: http://youthbm.voog.com/bmdocuments.

10) KMST activities and the new Network website Petra Votočková (CZ) presented the main developments of the KMST working group since the previous meeting in Vienna:

updated KMST aims & objectives

updated governance

updated calendar 2019–2020

guidelines for NA staff trainings template forms ► minimal requirements for: survey on participants

expectations, evaluation, activity report Petra also recalled the KMST aims and objectives and governance in order to receive feedback if these are clear for the network. The updated KMST calendar 2019 – 2020 was presented and participants were invited to react on any missing or superfluous activity. The calendar is available at: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Br3LNEsfQ0HmzNfvmAu0V9KlKHt7w6z04xpR-RuzRII/edit#gid=2089043716 The presentation is available at: http://youthbm.voog.com/bmdocuments . Network website Jojanneke de Waal (NL) introduced the new network

website http://www.nayouthnetwork.eu/login/, with its functionalities (uploading documents, using the registration facility for future business meetings etc.). NAs representatives/contact persons need to register on the website for access. Further details and instructions will be send by Jojan.

10) Next Business Meeting The next Business Meeting, organized by the Finnish NA under the Finnish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, will be held in Helsinki during 8-11 October 2019.