YESC 2026
The next edition of the Young European Security Conference will take place on February 26 and 27 in Berlin. Click here for more information about this conference and how to apply to be a part of it!
Young European Security Conference
The conference is a new initiative for security policy education supported by the Schwarzkopf Foundation Young Europe and the non-profit Hertie Foundation. The project will run for three years and consists of an annual conference in Berlin and accompanying educational activities.
Facts and Figures
- Project duration: 3 years
- An annual conference & educational activities
- For 16-21 year-olds from all over Europe
- YESC 2025: 200 young people from 31 countries; 16 facilitators, 53 speakers; 8 working groups
Why is the project important?
At a time when international conflicts and security policy issues are becoming increasingly relevant, we want to provide young people with security policy knowledge and skills and give them a platform in the security policy discourse. We are convinced that young people too often do not play a role in this topic and therefore want to make their perspectives heard. We see skills development, networking and active participation as an important prerequisite for strengthening democracy and cohesion in Germany, Europe and beyond.
What exactly happens at the conferences?
The young participants register for a working group according to their interests and deal with specific aspects of security policy in depth. These working groups are supervised by young facilitators from the Foundation’s networks and students from the Hertie School. Participants also take part in workshops with experts from academia, politics and civil society. On this basis, they develop their own ideas, questions and demands on their respective topics.
The program is framed by various interactive discussion formats and a festive closing event, where the participants present their results and discuss them with high-ranking experts.
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Impressions of the YESC. Photo Credit: Anne Barth
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Who can take part?
200 young people aged 16 to 21 from all over Europe will become part of the next edition of the conference. Participation in the conference is free of charge and the conference language is English. No prior knowledge of the content is required. For participants who do not come from Berlin, we offer a lump sum for travel expenses and accommodation for the days of the conference.
What happens beyond the conferences?
The conference will be accompanied by activities o the European Youth Parliament (EYP), whose national committees in Albania, Armenia, Belgium, Denmark, Portugal and Ukraine have already organized national events on the topic of security at the end of 2024. The topic of security will also play a central role in the EYP in 2025, particularly with regard to the project’s international meeting in The Hague.
In addition, a fellow from the Understanding Europe (UE) education network will develop a course and accompanying educational materials on security for schools across Europe in 2025. The materials will provide a practical introduction to European security issues and highlight different aspects of the topic. In fall 2025, the developed materials will be presented within the transnational network of Understanding Europe and then used in classrooms in twelve European countries. In addition, the material will be published online as an Open Educational Resource (OER) to make it accessible to a broad public.
The results of the first conference will be elaborated and made publicly available in a form to be determined. Both this work and the results of the survey will be incorporated into the design of the next conference.
