Participation – European Charlemagne Youth Prize

The European Charlemagne Youth Prize is awarded to youth-led projects that foster democracy, promote active citizenship and bring communities together. The European Charlemagne Youth Prize is awarded to youth-led projects that foster democracy, promote active citizenship and bring communities together.

The prize is jointly managed by the European Parliament and the Foundation of the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen.

To participate in the European Charlemagne Youth Prize, you must:

• Have a European project with which you want to apply;
• Be between 16 and 30 years old;
• Be resident in one of the EU Member States – You can submit a project as an individual candidate or on behalf of an organisation or a group of young people.

All submitted projects will first be evaluated by the national jury of the Member State of the project, which will select a single application. From these 27 national winners, the European jury will select the three best European winners, who will receive a cash prize of up to ¤7500 for their projects:

1. The three winning European projects will receive the following prizes: the first prize amounts to EUR 7,500, the second prize to EUR 5,000 and the third prize to EUR 2,500.
2. Representatives of each of the winning national projects are invited to the Charlemagne Youth Prize award ceremony in Aachen.
3. As part of the award, the European winners are invited to visit the European Parliament (in Brussels or Strasbourg).
4. One representative of each of the 3 European laureates will be offered the opportunity to undertake a Schuman traineeship in the European Parliament. The representative proposed for the traineeship must be part of the core team of the winning project and meet all the eligibility criteria of the traineeship programme. The traineeship may start on 1 October or 1 March of the 12 months following the award of the Prize. Details of this opportunity will be communicated directly to the national winning projects prior to the Award ceremony.

Deadline: 2 February 2026

More information: European Parliament