Midway Meeting – Thessaloniki EYC 2014

More than just Greece’s second largest city and home of beautiful beaches, Thessaloniki is halfway through their time serving as the 2014 European Youth Capital (EYC). From the 16th-20th July, the European Youth Forum visited to perform a midterm evaluation before the second half of the year starts.

The Youth Forum had the opportunity to work closely with many people involved in the Youth Capital such as the President of the EYC, Maria Paschalidou, and many programme coordinators and representatives from local YNGOs and those working for the EYC 2014.

So far, the city’s year as European Youth Capital is going very well, with many innovative events and projects already completed and many more to come. Additionally, many projects suggested by young people for young people have revolved around the European elections and other international events.

The Youth Forum will cooperate closely with Thessaloniki and support them during the rest of the year and also in the years to come, hopefully leaving a lasting legacy, which might be the biggest challenge to come. The Forum is impressed by the positive impulse that the EYC is providing for the young people of Thessaloniki by giving them opportunities to become active in the city’s social, economic, cultural and political life.

In addition to the monitoring visit, the Youth Forum and a group of selected participants with experience in EYC implementation met in a focus group to discuss the current applications for the 2017 European Youth Capital. They identified strengths and weaknesses of each application. Cascais, Galway, Perugia and Varna will all have the chance to improve their applications before the final decision of the jury in November of this year.

The European Youth Forum wants to extend a big thank you to Thessaloniki for hosting the monitoring visit and the focus group!