The GOAL of COM’ON Europe during is to create an open source framework for European cities in implementing participatory budgeting processes, which target young people not just as creators and initiators but also as decision makers themselves It also aims to create a platform for cooperation between cities which applied or are willing to apply similar processes in the near future. The project aims to reach these goals until June 2019.

The GENERAL OBJECTIVE of COM’ON Europe is to contribute to the improvement of civic participation of young people in local life through local level participatory budgeting mechanisms. The project will contribute to the increase of young people’s spirit of creativity, associativity, entrepreneurship, and community development by providing a safe environment for planning and coming forward as informal groups with small-scale initiatives, while providing funding on behalf of the municipalities or other donors and sources of funding, and delegating decisions towards the local community about initiatives which should to be supported through this process.

Specific objectives are:

·         O1: to create a clear general policy framework in order to increase civic participation of young people through dedicated participatory budgeting processes for youth in urban communities based on theory and practice which connects European policies with local level practical implementation, while also bringing up local experience to the European playfield (LOCAL-EUROPEAN),

·         O2: to provide participatory urban environments for young people and for public authorities based on trust, assistance and easy access and with the active contribution of the civil society (DECISION, VOTE), and to reach out to young people and to enable their creativity in the service of the urban quality of life of cities (IDEA, INITIATIVE),

·         O3: to enable other cities in adopting similar participatory processes and consolidating the cooperation of European cities (and especially cities involved in the Network of European Youth Capitals) regarding youth participation through the creation of the European Platform of Participatory Budgeting for Youth (consisting first of the European Centre for Youth Participation, the European Youth Participatory Registry and an open source methodology and toolkit (NETWORK, FRAMEWORK).

COM’ON Europe connects two specific aspects: youth participation and participatory budgeting, and this way it becomes original, unique. The reason for this is that it keeps the principle of participatory budgeting (deciding on public money’s faith) but it provides a double-sided platform through the engagement with organised and also unorganised young people willing to organise themselves but not through legally established organisations. This enables untapped energies of young people brought to surface in shaping community life in cities.

All partners are representing European Youth Capital title-bearer cities like Torino 2010, Braga 2012, Maribor 2013, Thessaloniki 2014, Cluj-Napoca 2015, Varna 2017 and Cascais 2018. These are all currently active cities in the Network of European Youth Capitals, all of them coming from member states of the European Union.

COM’ON Europe will create a general theory framework enhanced by practical examples of seven European cities regarding participatory budgeting for youth, comprising of the following:

·  Methodology: White Paper on Participatory Budgeting for Youth;

· Toolkit for youth participation and public decision making in participatory budgeting processes for youth;

· Pool of Facilitators, with specific competences and skills in engaging young people at grassroots level;

· Local Action Plans for youth participatory budgeting processes in partner cities during 2019;

· European Platform of Participatory Budgeting for Youth, through the framework for the creation of the European Centre for Youth Participation, and the European Youth Participatory Registry.