The EU-China Youth Forum, which focuses on promoting youth participation in their communities, opened Thursday in Shenzhen, where the 26th Universiade is also being hosted.

The forum highlights China's continued efforts to encourage young people's active involvement in all aspects of social life and enhance their opinion-forming and decision-making abilities.

Pan Gang, vice-president of All-China Youth Federation [Xiang Bin/China.org.cn]

"We have improved the system that facilitates young people's involvement in public affairs. Youngsters in our country have increasingly shown interest in youth participation," Pan Gang, vice-president of All-China Youth Federation said at the forum.

"Young people themselves consider their active participation as a key priority and want to be involved, especially in areas which concern them directly."

To improve youth participation, China has developed a range of formal and informal mechanisms for young people to be involved in influencing, shaping, designing and contributing to policy and the development of services and programs.

The forum considers youth participation to be essential to the healthy development of society and democracy.

Officials from the EU Youth Delegation also spoke about their experience in promoting youth participation.

"We have carried out a Youth in Action program, which provides funding to concrete projects aimed at encouraging youth participation at all levels," said Nevedalova Katarina, vice president of European Youth Forum.

China and Europe are facing some common challenges in youth issues such as handling of young migrants. The forum has provided a platform for them to share their experience.

The EU-China Youth Forum is the 5th flagship event of 2011 EU-China Year of Youth, a year-long event proposed by Premier Wen Jiabao that aims at promoting intercultural exchange, dialogue and cooperation on youth issues between the EU and China with a goal of strengthening contacts and mutual understanding between young people from both sides of the globe.