News archive - [Event Announcement] Tirana launches European Youth Capital 2022 programme with more than 1000 events
With the motto 'Activate youth' the initiative aims to tap into the creative and entrepreneurial potential of young Albanians
On 4 February, Tirana kicked off its European Youth Capital (EYC) 2022 year of initiatives. With the motto ‘Activate Youth’, the Albanian capital presented a jam-packed programme for the next year, featuring over 1,000 events.
The events are aimed at promoting volunteering, empowering young people and youth organisations, while providing networking opportunities with counterparts from across the continent. One of the central themes of the opening ceremony was 'the future' in terms of activating and empowering young people to participate in social, economic and political life.
Ten years of uplifting youth participation
The European Youth Capital initiative started ten years ago, with Rotterdam as the first city to receive the title. Over the years, it has been awarded to European cities from across the continent, including Antwerp, Amiens, Cluj-Napoca and Braga, always with the same goals in mind - promoting youth participation and creating links between people across national borders.
In 2021, Klaipeda in Lithuania held the title, while in 2023, it will go to Lublin in Poland and 2024 – to Ghent.
Opening Ceremony in Tirana
The opening ceremony featured a performance of traditional Albanian dance set to modern music, blending the cultural roots of the city with its future potential. In fact, this is the main point of Tirana’s year-long programme.
It focuses on promoting innovation and activating the untapped potential of Albania’s young people, such as entrepreneurs as well as cultural producers. It also focuses on European membership, as the country has been working to gain the status for more than 10 years now. Accession talks began in 2020 and Albania is slated to become an EU member together with Macedonia.
According to the Albanian European Youth Capital 2022 team, youth in the country makes up half of the population and it is also the most pro-European group. Thus, the programme also aims to bring ‘Europe’ to Albanian youth.
Tom Mathew, a board member with the European Youth Forum, the organisers of the EYC, was quoted in a press release saying that this year Tirana will show the rest of Albania and the rest of Europe, that it is a world-class gold standard in terms of youth involvement.
Tirana Mayor, Erion Veliaj, thanked the whole team for their work. He continued: "Each one of you has the opportunity to change the world. This is our moment, our time, this is our day and this is our year as a European Youth Capital.”
TheMayor.EU is a partner for European Youth Capital 2022 and you can follow us for more exciting updates and events in the programme.
Please visit the source page here.
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Entry created by Admin WBC-RTI.info on April 8, 2022
Modified on April 8, 2022
