The Pact for the Mediterranean sets out a vision for empowering the region’s youth. MedYCI, training 200 young people across five countries, is named in its Action Plan as one of the projects already putting that vision into practice.
MedYCI, the Interreg NEXT MED project training 200 young people across France, Spain, Türkiye, Tunisia, and Egypt, is named in the EU’s Pact for the Mediterranean Action Plan, listed as an existing project that is already advancing the Pact’s own goals for youth in the region.
Launched in Barcelona in November 2025, the Pact is the EU’s framework for cooperation with its southern Mediterranean neighbours, built around three pillars: people, economies, and security. Its Action Plan is a living document, updated twice a year, that tracks the concrete initiatives delivering on that framework, from a new Mediterranean University to a regional platform on renewable energy.
Under the pillar on people, one section is dedicated to empowering civil society, youth and local communities. Its centrepiece is a new Youth Parliamentary Assembly for the Mediterranean, which will give young elected representatives from both shores of the region a structured role in shaping the policies that concern them. MedYCI is named in the same section, in the list of existing EU-funded projects that the Action Plan identifies as already working toward that same goal.
The Pact’s core idea is that the Mediterranean’s future depends on genuinely empowering the people who live in it, starting with its youth. MedYCI is one of the projects already putting that idea into practice, with real participants, real timelines, and real outcomes, which is why the Commission’s own Action Plan points to it. It tells the region that training young people to analyse their own realities, create around them, and act on them is significant enough to be part of the EU’s Mediterranean strategy. MedYCI, in turn, shows what “empowering youth” looks like once it’s actually running, with a name, a budget, and young people going through it right now.
MedYCI’s training has three stages. Participants first work with experts to analyse the social, digital and environmental challenges specific to their own country. They then move into MedYCI Studios, where they turn that analysis into video, podcasts and other creative content. Finally, they put what they’ve learned into practice through local civic actions, showcases of youth-led ideas, and cross-regional dialogues that lead to strategic recommendations submitted to the Mediterranean Youth Council.
That last stage is where the connection to the Pact becomes concrete. A participant who reaches MedYCI’s dialogue and recommendation phase is contributing, in a documented way, to the same regional youth voice the Pact’s Action Plan identifies as a priority.
The project’s Consultation workshops and Co-Creation Lab, bringing together young people, trainers and partners to finalise its training framework, are the next steps toward the same goal the Pact describes: a Mediterranean where young people don’t just benefit from regional cooperation, but help shape it.
Last Update
30/09/2026
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