1.8 Cross-border cooperation
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Cooperation with European countries
The main part of the Swedish Government’s cooperation in the youth field is within the framework of the Education, Youth, Culture and Sport (EYCS) Council and the EU - Council of Europe youth partnership.
Sweden has been represented in some of the commission’s expert groups, the Expert group on EU indicators in the youth field and the Expert group on Mobility of young volunteers and cross-border solidarity. Earlier, Sweden was represented in the Expert group on youth work for active citizenship, preventing marginalisation and violent radicalisation and the Expert group on quality of youth work.
Bilateral and ad hoc cooperation
The Division for Civil Society and National Minorities within the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs takes part in bilateral/ad hoc activities with other European actors, such as multilateral peer-learning activities, policy conferences, youth policy networks, etc. Currently several initiatives regarding youth policy and migration/refugees/unaccompanied minors are under way or have special attention within bilateral or other ad hoc frameworks. Structured cooperation with Germany notably is taking place in this area of policy action and exchange of best practices.
Nordic cooperation
Within the Nordic council of Ministers, the Committee on Children and Youth (NORDBUK) is the main player in the youth policy field. NORDBUK runs on a co-management principle with representatives from the Nordic ministries and from the national youth councils.
Among other things, NORDBUK monitors the implementation of the children and youth strategy (Strategi for børn og unge i Norden) adopted in April 2016 by the Nordic Council of Ministers.
Three main priority areas have been identified in the strategy:
- increased support and inclusion of children and young people at risk
- continuous cooperation and support to civil society
- increased sharing of knowledge and capacity building activities within different sectors that affect living conditions of children and youth.
NORDBUK also gives support/grants to youth organisations/civil society working in the Nordic countries with different projects. Practically this is carried out by the Nordic Culture Point (Nordisk Kulturkontakt) which is the agency dealing with the funding scheme.
International cooperation
Sweden is currently participating in youth cooperation within the Council of Europe and within the Barents Euro-Arctic Council.
Youth policy cooperation within Barents Euro-Artic Council is mainly taking place through Joint working group on Youth with national representatives from Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia, as well as regional representatives from the Barents area. Activities include sharing of experiences, support to youth work and youth initiatives, as well as providing information to facilitate people-to-people contacts in the Barents region in the youth field, especially promoting dialogue and contacts between Russia and the Nordic countries.
Within the framework agreement between the European Union and Council of Europe, Sweden takes part of EKCYP (European Knowledge Center for Young People), by providing updated information in the EKCYP portal.