EU4Youth releases latest programme results, concluding its current phase
Since 2018, the EU4Youth programme – the European Union’s largest youth initiative in the Eastern Partnership – has been working with young people and systematically tracking what works. Now, as the current phase of the programme wraps up, the new data is in. The ‘Youth Education, Employment and Participation in the Eastern Partnership: EU4Youth Achievements Report 2025’ documents results from across the programme’s three pillars – education and employability, entrepreneurship and employment, and engagement and empowerment – while also looking back at the initiative’s current phase as a whole.
The 2025 report draws on programme-wide monitoring data and the annual EU4Youth end-beneficiary survey to assess impact across Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. Behind the figures are people: veterans rebuilding livelihoods, rural youth entering a council chamber for the first time, young women in conflict-affected communities taking the lead.
What the numbers show
On employment and entrepreneurship, EU4Youth grant projects helped to launch 100 youth-led start-ups that remained active by year’s end. Across the region, 2,924 young people took part in entrepreneurship competence development activities, and 1,157 participants reported improved employability following training, mentoring, or internship support. In Zaporizhzhia, for example, 3,727 consultations were delivered at the Checkpoint Rehabilitation Space, helping young veterans access psychological, legal, and economic support on the path back to civilian life.
Within the Engagement and Empowerment pillar, participation in Youth Policy Labs and the broader policy events held under the programme stands out, with over 3,500 young people taking part – over half of them women (52.8%) and almost two-thirds (63.1%) from disadvantaged groups. In Armenia, 15 Youth Policy Labs ran across all regions of the country, feeding into the National Youth Forum 2025, where participants developed 153 actionable recommendations. In Lori, young people entered a municipal building to meet with mayors and council members for the first time, with local officials describing it as their “first real practice of dialogue” with youth.
More than 1,050 competence development activities were delivered through regional and direct grant projects under the programme’s Education and Employability pillar, reaching close to 3,000 young people in 2025. The programme also supported 41 beneficiaries through College of Europe scholarships and the Natolin Fellowship Programme. One of them, Georgian fellow Salome Kandelaki, completed a visiting fellowship at CEPS in Brussels – an experience that, as the report notes, enabled her to connect complex policy debates on democratic resilience to real-world EU enlargement processes, and to return home as a credible, networked changemaker.
A programme built to last
In 2025, the Eastern Partnership region continued to face ongoing conflict, democratic backsliding in some countries, a global funding squeeze partly driven by cuts to US foreign assistance, and shrinking civic space in parts of the region. Against this backdrop, the report notes, EU funding for youth played an even more critical role in sustaining capacities and safeguarding existing gains.
Mechanisms introduced through EU4Youth – from Youth Policy Labs to strengthened youth councils, career guidance tools, and inclusive youth spaces – are now embedded in local structures. In Armenia, the Youth Policy Law was adopted and signed by the President following sustained EU4Youth technical support, with 15 Youth Policy Labs engaging approximately 400 young people from all regions of the country. In Moldova, youth advocacy under the programme contributed to a tenfold increase in one municipality’s youth budget. In Ukraine, youth-led social enterprises, veteran rehabilitation support, and frontline community initiatives demonstrate that recovery is already underway.
The EU4Youth Alumni Network, which has run five cycles since 2019, leaves behind 199 Alumni-led initiatives across six countries and over 9,800 indirect beneficiaries engaged through community actions and campaigns – with many initiatives continuing to operate independently after the programme’s support concluded.
What comes next
The 2025 report closes the monitoring and reporting cycle of the current EU4Youth phase, which concludes at the end of May 2026. Together with the six annual reports published since 2019, it forms a unique regional evidence base on what approaches have proved most effective in supporting youth employment, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement in the Eastern Partnership. This accumulated body of evidence, practices, and partnerships provides a durable foundation for ongoing youth empowerment – and a reference point for future youth-focused efforts in the region.
The full report is available in interactive format at EU4Youth Achievements Report 2025 – EU4Youth Days and as a PDF via EU Neighbours East.
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