Varna is a finalist in the competition for European Youth Capital 2017

After having successfully passed the second round of the competition, the city of Varna is one of the finalists for European Youth Capital in 2017. Rivals of the sea capital of Bulgaria for the prestigious title will be the cities of Cascais (Portugal), Galway (Ireland), New Castle (UK ) and Perugia (Italy). This is an initiative of the European Youth Forum (EYF), which started in 2009. The jury of EYF consists of representatives from the Directorate-General for Communication of the European Parliament, the Committee of the Regions, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, the Assembly of European Regions (AER), the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), the Council of Europe’s Advisory Council on Youth, EurActiv, Microsoft, the University of Montpellier and the Youth Focus Group. The Youth Focus Group consists of young experts who have direct experience in implementing projects of European Youth Capital. The high-level jury will determine the winning city in late November during the General Assembly of the European Youth Forum in the city of Cluj-Napoca (Romania). ‘European Youth Capital’ is a title awarded to a European city for a period of one year during which the city winner is given the opportunity to present its youth-oriented cultural, social, political and economic life. This initiative of EYF encourages new ideas and innovative projects, involving the active participation of young people in public life and aims at providing models for future development of youth policies in the European municipalities. Until now, European Youth capitals have been the following cities: Rotterdam, Netherlands (2009), Turin, Italy (2010), Antwerp, Belgium (2011), Braga, Portugal (2012), Maribor, Slovenia (2013), Thessaloniki, Greece (2014). The cities selected for European Youth Capital for the upcoming two years are Cluj Napoca, Romania (2015) and Ganja, Azerbaijan (2016).

Varna