Written by Nik Paddison
Can you tell us who you are, where you work and what it is that you do?
My name is Marcos Andrade, and I work for the Council of Europe. I have been working for the Council of Europe for the last twenty seven years. I started working in the North-South Centre where I was running the Youth Programme and Africa-Europe Youth Cooperation programme. Then I went to work with the Roma and Travellers team in Strasbourg and more recently I became the Deputy Director of the European Youth Center in Budapest. I have worked here now for the last three years, and part of my portfolio is to work with and support the Quality Label for Youth Centres programme.
Can you tell us what is the Quality Label? What does it mean and why is it important?
The Council of Europe maintains two European Youth Centres, one in Strasbourg and the other in Budapest. Over the years many member states have asked to have such a European youth centre in their country. Unfortunately, this is not sustainable for the Council of Europe, so the European Steering Committee for Youth (CDEJ) launched the Quality Label concept. This was partly as a response to those requests and as an opportunity to develop a network of good practices for youth centres.
Firstly, it is a programme that identifies youth spaces (youth centres) of quality that promote and operate on the values and educational model of the Council of Europe. The idea was to create a network of spaces that have the quality and the will to govern their youth centre according to the model of the Council of Europe.
Why it is important
We are currently experiencing many threats to civil society in Europe, many more youth centres are closing than being opened. This means shrinking spaces for participation, for democracy, and even shrinking emotional space for participation. We believe that the work done at this quality level in our youth spaces network is a strong support for youth participation and is super important. We also believe that supporting youth centres and quality spaces in general is the best way to counteract the shrinking spaces issue.
How does a youth centre get the Quality Label?
In order to be recognised by the Quality Label, such a space needs to meet the Council of Europe criteria by achieving certain standards, have full cooperation with the Council of Europe, and have the required monitoring elements. This triangle; standards, cooperation, and monitoring, form the basis of the criteria that a youth centre is required to meet in order to achieve Quality Label status.
An applying youth centre is also required to have youth participation as a priority and the presence of young people in the decision-making structures in the centre. One of the most important common denominators all the centres share is that they are run with and by young people. This is probably the most challenging part to implement. It is very difficult for a member state that is unfamiliar with the Council of Europe co-management system to take part in running a centre. As such a model requires young people to be at the core of the decision-making process, this is easier for centres that are run by youth organisations.
The Label is given for a term of two, three or five years. The length of the term depends very much on the youth centre and its whole ecosystem when it was being assessed against the Council of Europe criteria.
After receiving the Quality Label, there is periodic monitoring, this is done by an international delegation, made up of representatives of the CDEJ and people from other Labelled centres and experts. They conduct the monitoring/fact finding visits to ensure the youth centre continues to meet the criteria. The Quality Label programme also offers coaching visits to help the centres identify their needs and areas for development. Often however, the needs are recognised through the international delegations that do the monitoring visits and who make recommendations.
Diversity of youth centres
The youth spaces that are part of the Quality Label network are very diverse. We have some centres that are the result of national youth policies and so come under National Ministries or Directorates of Youth. We also have a number of centres that are municipality initiatives, so they are part of the youth policy response of local authorities. We also have centres run by young people and some by non-governmental organisations or foundations.
This diversity in terms of the governance of the centres is very interesting, and it is even more interesting when they are together and they try to find a common vision, for instance, simply defining youth work or about safeguarding. What is common regardless of who is running them is that they are all residential training and educational centres. They have to have the facilities to be able to work on training offers that are international and they should have capacity for at least 35 people.
What else does the Quality Label programme offer a youth centre?
Every year, we organise an event for the youth centre manager with one of the Labelled centres called the European Platform for Youth Centres. We also hold an annual Educational Forum which is a space for exchange and for going deeper into the training and educational dimension of the centres. This one is for the youth centre educational staff.
Platform meetings
This year, 2026, the Platform meeting was the 17th edition and it took place in the Quality Label Youth Centre in Destelheide in Belgium. All the managers of the Quality Label centres gathered to speak about the needs of their centres and develop our strategic vision for the network. This year we also had managers from seven other centres who are in the process of joining the network or who have an interest in applying.
During the meeting we look at every aspect of each youth centre. We look at the needs of the facilities, the vision of each centre, their funding needs, programming needs, and so on! These sessions are designed to provide inspiration for each other.
Each platform meeting also has a theme, this year it was critical thinking and how youth participation work can contribute to critical thinking. During the meeting we explored how the centres need to be spaces for the promotion of critical thinking among young people. The exploring of the theme is supported by external experts.
Marianthal Statement
The 2025 Platform meeting took place at the Quality Label youth centre in Marianthal in Luxembourg, during the Luxembourgish Presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. At this meeting it was felt that we as a network had arrived at a certain level of maturity, and that the network is becoming a political being in itself in the youth field. The centre's managers adopted something called the Marianthal Statement.
The Statement reaffirms the centres' commitment to the values of the Council of Europe and strengthens the network's commitment to promoting safe youth spaces that encourage participation and are backed by solid educational methods. The Statement also emphasises the network's commitment to acting as relevant hubs for democracy.
The Marianthal Statement highlights the importance of youth spaces, whether rural or urban. It emphasises that they are hubs of democracy and active participation, spaces of diversity, inclusion, human rights education and human dignity, and they are engines of empowerment. They should also represent quality youth work and cultural learning.
How do you see the whole Quality Label concept connecting with the European Youth Work Agenda and the Roadmap?
The Quality Label centres participated in the fourth European Youth Work Convention (2025 Malta), with a strong delegation of youth centre representatives. The Quality Label programme continues to monitor the developments of the Agenda’s eight priority areas and now also the Roadmap, in the work of each of the Centres. It should also be noted that the youth work happening in quality youth spaces was taken into account when developing the 2025 Convention. Youth centres and their work are also highlighted in the report recommendations and the Roadmap.
Most of the centres connect well to the bigger elements of the Roadmap. For example, safeguarding the quality of youth work, providing the conditions for it to happen, safeguarding the conditions of the youth workers, and having everything in place regarding employee dignity and the dignity of their work.
Regarding the future of youth work and the Quality Label, what would you like to see?
I think the Quality Label has to continue to incorporate this dimension of being a relevant actor for promoting that youth work requires safe spaces, and it requires quality youth spaces.
We know that youth work is extremely important for our societies, so it is important that we safeguard more and more the continent where this work happens. The danger signs are not just a warning, for many years now the spaces for civic engagement and participation have been shrinking, disappearing or replaced by other types of values, conditions and purposes.
The quality youth space is where we get to perform quality youth work. But it is not just the physical conditions, it is also the human infrastructure, and the architectural infrastructure.
