The European Charlemagne Youth Prize, sometimes shortened Charlemagne Youth Prize, is a prize that since 2008 has been annually awarded by the European Parliament and the foundation of the original Charlemagne Prize to young people who have contributed towards the process of European integration. Like the Charlemagne Prize, which has existed since 1949, the youth prize commemorates Charlemagne, ruler of the Frankish Empire and founder of what became the Holy Roman Empire, who resided and is buried at Aachen in today's Germany.
History
The Charlemagne Youth Prize is a joint initiative of the former President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, who is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Charlemagne Prize, and the Honorary Chairman of the Charlemagne Prize Foundation, André Leysen. The aim was to win the hearts and commitment of young people. In a contest, young Europeans who are particularly committed to Europe in an exemplary manner and who actively participate in shaping Europe with projects and ideas should be honoured. On 27 September 2007, the European Charlemagne Prize for Youth was adopted by the Bureau of the European Parliament. The first award ceremony took place in Aachen on 29 April 2008. Since then, the prize has been awarded annually in the run-up to the presentation of the Charlemagne Prize.
The prize is advertised and accompanied annually by the Representations of the European Parliament in the EU Member States. The call for proposals will be distributed via the Youth Charlemagne Prize website, press releases, etc. The age of the participants should be between 16 and 30 years. They must be citizens or residents of one of the Member States of the European Union. The winners will be selected in a two-stage procedure. In the first stage, national selection juries, consisting of at least two members of the European Parliament and a representative of youth organisations, will decide. Each country has one national winner. These national winners will be invited to Aachen. In the second stage, a European jury consisting of three members of the European Parliament, the President of the European Parliament and four representatives of the Foundation International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen will select three projects from the national prize winners as 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize winners. The 1st prize is endowed with 5,000 EUR, the 2nd prize with 3,000 EUR and the 3rd prize with 2,000 EUR. The award ceremony will take place in Aachen. All national prize winners are invited to the award ceremony, where all national projects will also be briefly presented.
Award winners
The participants and award winners will present a wide variety of ideas and initiatives in all EU countries. Among the award-winning projects so far are youth exchange programmes, artistic projects, media projects and internet projects. The competitions and award winners since 2008 are documented on the Youth Charlemagne Prize page of the European Parliament website.
