On October 10th, the European Dialogue of Towards an Inclusive Europe project was held at the European Commission Office in Barcelona, marking the transition from a local perspective to a European one.
Having organised, inclusion dialogues in seven municipalities across Catalonia and gathering the main challenges and proposals on inclusion, this session served to share these contributions and analyse how they can engage with European policies and frameworks.
The meeting brought together young people from diverse backgrounds, representatives of public administration, and elected officials who had already participated in local dialogues, providing a plurality of voices and experiences. The event also included the participation of two representatives from the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed), a public consortium based in Barcelona that works to promote dialogue and cooperation in the Mediterranean region.
The associations driving the project opened the session by presenting the main results of the territorial dialogues and a new digital mapping tool for the project—an interactive platform that allows users to visualize and locate the participating entities across Catalonia. Through this exercise, similarities and differences between local and European challenges were identified, and a discussion was opened on how to better structure spaces for participation and advocacy.
Within this framework, it was emphasized the need to contextualize migration flows and recognize the historical, linguistic, and political links connecting Europe with the other continents. The session highlighted the importance of inclusion and meaningful participation of young people from diverse backgrounds in decision-making processes.
During the discussions, the limitations of current participatory models were debated, often relying on symbolic and minimally representative forms of engagement. It was also emphasized that young people’s distrust of institutions does not stem from a lack of interest, but from the perception that their contributions have little real impact on public policies. In this context, the session underscored the need to promote initiatives that create more equitable, sustained, and impactful spaces for participation—such as those fostered by the Towards an Inclusive Europe project.
The session continued in smaller group discussions followed by a plenary debrief, aiming to deepen the topics raised and enrich them with a European and constructive perspective.
This collective work allowed the participants’ contributions to be collected and organised, which are presented below in the form of a project brief. This document is conceived as a key tool for the project’s final phase, which will take place at the political heart of Europe in Brussels, where we will have the opportunity to present the project’s results and proposals.
This activity has been developed in the frames of the Youth Participation Activity project Towards Inclusive Europe - Cap a l'Europa Inclusiva, supported by the Erasmus+ programme co-funded by the European Union and Coordinated by AHEAD.
Find further information about the project in: https://aheadedu.org/en/projects/towards-inclusive-europe/
The European Commission's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.