The Porto Metropolitan Area (AMP), in partnership with the National Association for Young Businesspeople (ANJE), actively participated in the “EU Youth Dialogue – ANJE Europe” project, an initiative funded by the Erasmus+ programme that promoted structured dialogue between young people, youth practitioners and policy makers.

This project involved the 17 municipalities of the AMP, reinforcing the metropolitan commitment to the active participation of young people in the development of more inclusive and effective public policies.


Decentralised Sessions

As part of the participatory methodology, two decentralised sessions were held in the municipalities of Arouca and Maia, attended by young people, institutional representatives and agents from the entrepreneurial ecosystem. These sessions allowed for the collection of direct contributions from local youngsters, promoting territorial cohesion and the representativeness of the different realities of the AMP.


Contribution to the Letter of Recommendations

The project culminated in the drafting of the Letter of Recommendations on Youth and Entrepreneurship Policy, presented by ANJE to the Government, with the support of the AMP. This document identifies six priority areas for building a more effective public policy aligned with the challenges faced by young people:

1.       To retain young talent – through incentives for hiring and national mobility.
2.       To reduce bureaucracy – with proposals such as the creation of integrated platforms to support young entrepreneurship.
3.       To increase civic and business participation – including networks of municipalities and national entrepreneurship competitions.
4.       To promote financial and entrepreneurial literacy in educational contexts – with educational programmes and project accelerators.
5.       To improve communication with and for young people – adapting channels and languages to their realities.
6.       To facilitate the generational transition of decision-makers – promoting greater youth representation in decision-making processes.

These recommendations reflect the voice of the AMP’s youth and aim to influence national public policies, reinforcing the role of youth as agent of social and economic transformation.