What is the President’s Youth Advisory Board expected to deliver?

The new channel for European Youth

At a time when Europe is seeking ways to strengthen trust between institutions and young citizens, the European Commission is creating a new mechanism for direct consultation: the President’s Youth Advisory Board, a structure that places the voices of young people literally next to the President of the Commission. The initiative was announced in President von der Leyen’s Political Guidelines and officially launched in 2025, with the aim of strengthening young people’s participation in European policy-making. The Board’s first meeting took place on December 3, 2025, in Brussels, with the participation of young representatives from across the Union. The discussion focused on how young people use social media, the opportunities and risks that arise from it, including issues such as mental health and the need to define a “digital age of majority.”

The Board acts as an advisory body to the Commission and, in particular, to the President, allowing young people to directly express their experiences, concerns, and suggestions on policies that affect them. The Commission has placed support for young people at the heart of its work, believing that their experiences should be incorporated early on in policy design so that decisions reflect their needs. At the same time, the creation of the Board is a continuation of previous efforts to broaden youth participation, such as the annual Youth Policy Dialogues of each Commissioner and the “Youth Check” mechanism, which examines the impact of new initiatives on the lives of young people from the design stage. The Commission is also announcing a strategy for intergenerational justice and a European action plan against cyberbullying.

“My main motivation for joining the President’s Youth Advisory Board was my deep desire to ensure that young people’s voices are not only heard but genuinely integrated into real policymaking at the highest level of the European Union. Through my long-term engagement in European youth fora and representing the Hellenic National Youth Council, I have seen that young people bring energy, valuable experiences, innovative ideas, vast knowledge, and solutions that too often remain distant or do not reach places of real influence and decision-making. My participation in the PYAB allows me to help bridge this gap. I believe the most pressing need for young people in Europe today is strengthening democratic participation and mental well-being, while simultaneously addressing social inequalities, particularly those related to gender. For young people to feel that they truly belong in the European project, they need more opportunities with purpose, safer spaces to express themselves, and meaningful intersectoral youth policies that respond and reflect their realities. I am optimistic we will work seamlessly with the other National Youth Councils, as we already do in countless other settings, to meet these needs and succeed in this new youth advocacy effort that this European Commission President’s Experts Group is committed to establish.”

-Elvira Mentzelioti, Hellenic National Youth Council Representative in PYAB

The most important motivation for me to participate in the President’s Youth Advisory Board was the opportunity for institutional representation of my country’s youth within the European Union’s decision-making centres. Being able to convey the concerns, priorities, and proposals of young people from Cyprus directly to the President of the European Commission is not only an honour, but also a responsibility. I strongly believe that young people should not merely be recipients of policies, but co-creators of them. This institution moves precisely in that direction, strengthening the voice of youth at the highest political level, and this is my greatest motivation. At the European level, the most pressing need for young people today is to ensure that their voice is genuinely taken into account in policymaking. It is not enough to speak about the issues that concern young people; we must speak with young people and incorporate their positions into concrete measures. Young people have clear priorities, foremost among them affordable housing and economic security.

Today, young people across Europe struggle to buy or even rent their own homes, to start families, and to plan their futures, as wages often fail to keep pace with the rising cost of living. This is not merely an economic or social issue; it is a strategic issue for Europe’s future, as the housing crisis and the financial pressure faced by young people threaten Europe’s demographic balance and social cohesion. Political leadership, at both national and European levels, must recognise that without targeted policies to support young people—particularly in the areas of housing, employment, and the cost of living—Europe’s future is at risk. Only if young people’s concerns are translated into concrete public policies will we be able to effectively address these challenges and ensure that the next generation has real prospects.

-Loukas Lingis, Cyprus Youth Council (CYC)

As a member of the President’s Youth Advisory Board representing the Hellenic National Youth Council, I see my role as creating a genuine communication bridge between young people and the European decision-making ecosystem, guaranteeing that EU policies are shaped by youth, for youth, and with youth at its core. Through structured consultations with Greek and European youth networks, I will facilitate thematic dialogues and open consultations in collaboration with the European Commission’s Representation in Athens. At the same time, I will actively draw on Europe’s key participation mechanisms such as the EU Youth Dialogue, Youth Policy Dialogues, the Youth Stakeholders Group, the Youth Check, and the Implementation Dialogues, which together provide robust, evidence-based insights into what young people experience and expect. My long-standing involvement in youth organisations allows me to present a diverse and grounded set of perspectives to the highest political levels. In parallel, I aspire to prioritise topics consistently highlighted by young people themselves: gender equality, the agri-food and green transition, democratic participation and empowerment, and mental health as a cornerstone of a resilient generation. For me, representation was never a one-way process. Reporting back to youth networks and organisations is essential to make sure that young people clearly see how their contributions translate into tangible political outcomes. Through this continuous and reciprocal flow, I aim to help pave the way for a Europe that not only listens to its young people but co-creates policies with them, a Europe where youth voices are not symbolic but central to the decisions that outline our present and common future.

-Elvira Mentzelioti, Hellenic National Youth Council Representative in PYAB

First of all, I believe that my role as a member of the President’s Youth Advisory Board is two-way. On the one hand, we have the extremely important access to the President of the European Commission, through which we can convey young people’s concerns and propose solutions to policies that affect them. On the other hand, equally important is our systematic and meaningful communication with the young people of our own country, so that they can inform us about the issues that concern them, their lived experiences, and their proposals. I firmly believe that our role begins with listening carefully to the concerns and views of young people across a wide range of issues. We then communicate these positions to the European Commission and to the President herself, articulate them in a structured manner through the policy papers that are prepared, and ensure that they are taken into account in the shaping of legislation and policies. This cycle is completed by informing the young people of our country about what was discussed during the meetings, which proposals we submitted on their behalf, and the stage of implementation of each issue. Accountability to young people is, for me, just as important as representing them.

As for my personal priorities, as I mentioned earlier, the housing crisis and the economic security of young people are at the core. I do not single them out because I believe they are the only important issues, but because my daily interaction with young people in Cyprus clearly shows that these are the issues that concern them the most: how they will manage to secure a home and how they will survive economically in order to move forward with their lives. For this reason, whenever I am given the opportunity within the framework of the President’s Youth Advisory Board, I will seek to place the housing crisis and the economic survival of young people in Europe on the agenda. These are issues that require particular attention from the EU if it genuinely does not want to lose its young people and further aggravate the already problematic demographic challenge it is facing.

-Loukas Lingis, Cyprus Youth Council (CYC)