EU NEIGHBOURS. The EU’s Young European Ambassadors (YEAs) youth empowerment initiative celebrates its fourth anniversary this week by welcoming new members to the network.
69 students and young professionals between the ages of 16 and 26 from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, as well as Austria, Hungary, Italy and Ireland, will join the network to help raise awareness about the EU’s cooperation with the Eastern Neighbourhood.
Since the launch of the initiative in 2016, the Young European Ambassadors have been committed to working within their communities, in person and online. Through social media engagement, challenges, campaigns and more than 500 events, they have managed to engage thousands of young people across the EU and the Eastern partner countries, making EU-funded opportunities for youth more accessible than ever.
These young activists and future leaders have also built an online community of 7,000 Facebook members, belonging to the Young European Neighbours network, which in turn is at the core of around 70,000 followers on the ‘EU NEIGHBOURS east’ social media channels. The 10-fold multiplying effect is a testament to how influential their voices are online and how powerful their community-building capacity is.
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The YEAs initiative is part of the ‘EU NEIGHBOURS east’ project within the EU’s ‘OPEN Neighbourhood’ programme, funded by the European Commission. It aims to foster cooperation and sustainable links between young people and youth organisations from the EU and the Eastern partner countries.
There are currently more than 700 Young European Ambassadors in the six Eastern Partner countries, the 27 EU Member States and the UK, representing over 34 different nationalities.
