The freedom to move, the freedom to stay
I came to the Mediterranean Coast and Macro-Regional Strategies Week in Izola with a personal reason to believe in cooperation across borders. I also left with a question: if the decisions being discussed there will affect our lives, how do we make sure young people can understand them, contribute to them and see themselves in the results?
I am developing Nitrio, a startup in Slovenia. What began as an idea took me to the national POPRI competition and then to EUSAIR Youth POPRI in Skopje. There, I met young people from other countries, heard different perspectives and received feedback on a project I was still figuring out. Those encounters helped me see it differently and connected me with people I probably would not have met otherwise. Without that experience, my journey would not look quite the same.
For many people my age, communicating across borders feels ordinary. We exchange ideas online, study abroad, collaborate with people we have never met in person and imagine opportunities beyond our own countries. Yet access to a meaningful international network is not automatic. Programmes that bring people together can make a difference, especially when an idea is still young and its creator is finding the confidence and connections to pursue it.
This was the personal experience I brought to the panel on EU Cohesion Policy and macro-regional strategies. Across the Week, discussions also looked towards the 2028 to 2034 financial period and how cooperation could inform future European programmes and investments. I heard a familiar institutional vocabulary: priorities, investment, resilience, shared challenges. But from my perspective, the question underneath them is simpler: what becomes possible for someone because countries and regions choose to work together?
Being free to leave, and free to stay
For me, cooperation has opened possibilities beyond Slovenia. I value the freedom to move, learn and build connections elsewhere. But I also raised another question in my speech:
“What does freedom of movement really mean if young people cannot afford the freedom to stay?”
The ability to leave is valuable. Having no realistic alternative to leaving is something else. Someone may want to study abroad and return home with new ideas. Someone else may want to build a career in another country. And someone may want to stay close to their family, their community or a project they have started locally. Our ambitions are different. The point is that a choice means more when more than one path is genuinely available.
That tension became concrete when I spoke with Italian students at the event. They described how uncertain employment can make it difficult to secure a regular rental contract, and how access to housing often depends on family support. One of their collective statements was striking:
“If you don’t have a family to support you, it’s almost impossible to rent a home on your own in Italy.”
This is their account of what they see around them, not a claim about every young person in Italy. Still, it raises a question that reaches beyond one country. What does independence look like when you are ready to work, but your income or type of contract keeps you from finding a place of your own? The students proposed practical support from local authorities for young people seeking housing, including those with temporary or casual jobs. They were asking for the conditions to begin making their own decisions.
Tania, an 18-year-old student from Italy, offered another perspective. She spoke about the high cost of living in cities such as Milan, Venice, Rome and Parma, particularly for students seeking affordable accommodation, while noting that the situation differs between places. She also described different attitudes among people her age: some want to study abroad, while others would rather remain at home and rely more on their parents. Young people are not a single group with a single dream. Freedom includes the possibility of choosing differently.
These are not all problems a macro-regional strategy can solve. Housing and employment decisions involve local and national authorities as well as wider economic conditions. But the conversations belong together. International cooperation can open doors; what happens at home shapes who can walk through them. If we celebrate mobility without looking at the conditions for an independent life, we may miss a large part of what opportunity actually means.
Making the connection visible
This is why the discussions about Europe’s future priorities matter to me. When institutions consider where to invest and which challenges to address together, they are also discussing conditions in which people will study, work, start businesses and decide where to live. A young person’s experience will not answer every policy question. But it can reveal what a proposal looks like from the other end, where a strategy meets an actual life.
There is a difficulty here that I spoke about during the closing programme in Izola. Much of the language used in macro-regional discussions is difficult to connect to everyday experience if you do not already know the field. I could sit in a room hearing about environmental quality or cross-border cooperation and recognise their importance. But how would someone outside that room know that these conversations have anything to do with them?
Take the protection of marine ecosystems. We can explain it through technical plans and policy frameworks, which are necessary for the people doing the work. We can also begin with a question someone near the coast recognises: what will happen to the sea, local fishing and the food available from it if we fail to protect that environment? That is not a prediction that fresh fish will disappear. It is a way of making the stakes understandable. The same approach could connect transport cooperation to getting to work, or innovation programmes to a young person trying to test an idea.
I do not think young people need every subject reduced to a slogan. Nor do I think we all have the same attention span or way of receiving information. But many of us are navigating studies, jobs, projects and a constant stream of messages. Clear, direct communication helps us recognise why something deserves our time. If we cannot see the relevance of a discussion, it is harder to imagine taking part in it. The problem is not always a lack of interest. Sometimes the connection has simply not been made visible.
And understanding is only one part of access. Participation itself takes time, and sometimes travel and money. Some young people are still in school; others are looking for work or building something without a stable income. Developing a startup takes attention every day. Being invited to contribute is meaningful, but invitations do not remove those constraints. If participation depends mainly on being able to give unpaid time, not everyone has the same chance to be present.
That leaves me with two questions for the people shaping future programmes. Are we explaining their relevance in a way that people outside policy circles can understand? And are there realistic ways for young people with different circumstances to contribute while priorities are still being formed, rather than only hearing about them afterwards?
A Europe we can recognise in our lives
My experience at EUSAIR Youth POPRI showed me a side of European cooperation that I could feel immediately: a conversation, a new connection, a different perspective on my own idea. The Week in Izola showed me the larger conversations behind that kind of opportunity. I do not expect a European strategy to settle every question about a young person’s future. I do hope the people developing these strategies remain curious about the lives that their decisions eventually reach.
European values become more tangible through experience. Being able to connect across borders, learn from someone with a different background and take part in a discussion about shared challenges can give those ideas meaning. For young people who find that meaning in their own lives, there is a reason to care about the safety, connection and resilience of the wider European community. But belonging cannot be taken for granted, and young people cannot be expected to think or act as one group.
I started with what cooperation made possible for one project. Conversations in Izola brought me back to the choices that surround every such opportunity: whether we can afford independence, whether we can stay or leave on our own terms, whether we understand what is being decided and whether we have the means to contribute. They are different questions, but they lead to the same place. A connected Europe is something we encounter not only when we cross a border, but also in the possibilities we have when we return home, and in the space we are given to help shape what comes next.
Written by Naja Zagorc (28 years old), Youth Representative at the Mediterranean Coast and Macro-Regional Strategies Week 2026 in Izola, Slovenia.