The Government of the Azores, through the Regional Directorate for Youth, and the University of the Azores, through the Centre for Social Studies, will promote an international colloquium on "The challenges of youth in European Regions."

The meeting will be held at the University of the Azores on December 4-5 and will be opened by the Regional Assistant Secretary for Parliamentary Affairs, Isabel Rodrigues. This initiative is organised in the context of the Azores Youth Observatory (OJA).

The event brings together national and international experts, who will discuss and reflect on the consistency of public policies for youth, bearing in mind the major aspirations of youngsters when faced with a social, economic and cultural context in profound change.

Maria Manuel Vieira, coordinator of the Youth Permanent Observatory (OPJ), sociologist and researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, will address the theme "Youth and future choices: from risk to risking." In turn, Rui Bettencourt, Secretary-General of the Professional Mobility Programme of the Assembly of European Regions - Eurodyssey, will present a paper on the theme "Can young people still shape the Europe of the 21st century ?Regional realities and challenges to today's decision-makers for the Europe of tomorrow."

Furthermore, the event will feature guest speakers Karl-Heinz Wieland, Coordinator of European Mobility Programmes, who will present a paper on "How European traineeships can contribute to finding long-term work in Central Europe?" and Beat Rohner, Chairman of the Youth Regional Network of the Assembly of European Regions (AER), a regional network of youth organisations. He will address the theme "Youth Challenges in the Regions of Europe: from the standpoint of experts."

The works also features a paper on "Professional pathways of Azorean youngsters" to be delivered by Rolando Lalanda, Executive Coordinator of the Azores Youth Observatory and researcher at the Centre for Social Studies of the University of the Azores, as well as a paper presented by Pina Lalli, University of Bologna, who will address the theme "Young people and their media representations."

This international conference is targeted at professionals working in the area of youth as well as at all those who are interested in the areas of youth, access to the labour market, training, international mobility, communication, citizenship and social change.