5 issues common to all
young people are at the heart of the action
of the Med Youth network

Understanding the problem of climate change requires addressing the notion of social justice. The current economic system remains environmentally destructive and, above all, deeply unequal. The first victims of climate change are the least privileged populations. Tackling the causes of the climate crisis and ensuring a fair and equitable transition is the scale of the challenge for real social and climate justice. 

In the Mediterranean, the citizen mobilisations of recent years have been driven in part by young people. Paradoxically, they are not very involved in politics and vote less than their elders. Sometimes consulted but rarely represented, young people do not lose interest in the common good. They are committed in a different way to the common good, by creating their own approaches and mobilising within civil society. 

The idea of a Mediterranean without borders, of a space for exchange and sharing, does not only concern young people. There are too many barriers: difficulties in accessing visas, socio-economic obstacles... Yet elsewhere seems so close, but at what price? The inhumanity of migration policies, the often unworthy reception conditions, the criminalisation of migration are all challenges for Mediterranean civil societies... 

The Mediterranean region is characterised by a very high rate of youth unemployment. Supporting access to training and employment for young people is, today more than ever, a priority for our countries, in order to recreate a horizon, to allow young people to live a dignified life, to project themselves with optimism into the future and to become fully involved in the life of the city.

Art and culture have always been an important means of expression. The creative liberation that followed the "Arab revolutions" and the emergence of new artistic practices largely initiated and invested by young people. However, in the Mediterranean, inequalities in access to culture remain glaring, artistic expression is still too often restricted and independent creation suffers from a lack of support.