The European Youth Conference is taking place in the City of Thessaloniki – the European Youth Capital for 2014 - as part of the events organized by the EU Greek Presidency, with the support of the European Commission, and the Hellenic National Youth Council, and the topic is "Social Inclusion of Young People Must Be a Priority." The event kicked off on March 10 and will conclude today, bringing together approximately 250 participants from National Youth Councils (NYCs) and Directorates-General for Youth from the EU, candidate countries and EFTA (European Free Trade Alliance) states, as well as from International Non-Governmental Youth Organizations (INGYOs), the European Youth Forum and the European Commission.

The delegates have workshops throughout the conference and discuss concrete recommendations for policy actions. This event serves as a forum for continuous joint reflection on the priorities, implementation and follow-up of European cooperation in this field. It builds upon the results of national consultations conducted in the 28 Member States of the EU as well as the reports submitted by International Non-Governmental Youth Organizations (INGYOs). It follows those of the Irish and Lithuanian presidencies, is the last in the Trio Presidency, which have all focused on social inclusion of young people.