Premium
Seven cities - Alba Iulia, Baia Mare, Galati, Iasi, Ploiesti, Satu Mare and Suceava - have filed bids this year to win the title of Romania's Youth Capital, which includes winning a 50,000-euro prize.
According to a press statement released on Monday, this is the second competition this year under this national programme, which is similar to the principles of the European Youth Capital, a title held by Cluj-Napoca in 2015.
The programme is coordinated by the Governing Body of the Youth Capital of Romania - the Youth Council of Romania (CTR), the Federation of Cluj Youth (FTC), the PONT Group and Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR) - and designed to come up with guidelines for how local administration collaborate with youth NGOs and the private sector to place young Romanians at the heart of urban development.
The title is currently held by Bacau, a city that will pass the baton on May 2, 2018, the National Youth Day.
The winning city will receive from BCR, the co-initiator of the programme, a cash prize worth 50,000 euros. This award is both a starting point for financing the projects proposed by the title winner and a resource available for its own contribution to attracting additional funding sources.
The evaluation of the submitted projects will be carried out in two stages by an independent jury consisting of representatives of the youth NGO sector, the private sector, youth organisations of parliamentary political parties and public institutions. The first step is to evaluate the simplified form of applications, which will result in the finalist cities being nominated in August. Subsequently, they will submit their full applications by October 15, and the winning city will be announced on November 12 at the Youth Summit, to be held in the current Romanian Youth Capital, Bacau.
The first Romanian city to have held this title and pioneered the programme was Timisoara, May 2, 2016 - May 1, 2017, followed by Bacau, a city named in a competition that will hold the title of Romania's Youth Capital until May 1, 2018.
The 2017 edition of the programme is unfolded under the High Patronage of the President of Romania, Klaus Werner Iohannis, which confirms the value of the concept and the success of the pilot phase.
