Interregional Seminar in Belgium under the “Rural Youth Future” Project
On the 15th and 16th of October 2025, an Interregional Seminar and Steering Committee Meeting within the frame of the project “RuralYouthFuture – Improving the role of youth policies for Rural Sustainable Development”, co-funded by the Interreg Europe Programme 2021-2027, took place in Brussels, Belgium.
The seminar was opened with welcoming remarks from a representative of the Interreg Europe Joint Secretariat. This event gathered key stakeholders and experts in rural policy and youth engagement to exchange innovative approaches, lessons learned, and successful practices that have proven impactful and transferable across European regions.
Partners from each region presented insights on policy development, early outcomes, transferable good practices, and stakeholder engagement. During the event, discussions highlighting policy improvements and cross-regional learning were organised.
In the first part of the presentations, the focus was given on the lessons drawn for future policy development at local, regional, or national level as well as measurable outcomes emerged from actions. The Bulgarian partner, Municipality of Peshtera, is currently setting up a new youth municipal center and some good practices from Rural Youth Future can be integrated through this establishment and will maximize the impact on youth development of this municipal structure. The Peshtera Municipality wants to expand the activities of this structure and include STEM-based activities targeting at youths. This was inspired by good practice coming from Latvia (the Ventspils Science Centre VIZIUM which provides ICT and STEM education and curricular to youths), and Portugal (the GOMA good practice – a programme to empower youths through science).
Other policy improvements based on identified needs could be for example to stimulate the potential of local touristic sector, and good practices like “Tartu 2024 Extended” provide good insights on that. One more example for a good practice that could be transferable to different regions is the “Career platform Profesii.info”. This is an online platform, which supports Bulgarian high-school students in making informed and personalized career decisions during key educational transitions.
On the second working day the event continued with stakeholder’s roundtable on topic “Making Policy Work: Practical Approaches and Evaluation Strategies”. The objective of the roundtable was to create a peer-learning environment where partners can share practical approaches to policy improvement, aiming to generate takeaways for all participants.
The meeting concluded with а strategic planning discussions to define next steps in the project’s roadmap and ensure the continued exchange of knowledge among partner regions.
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