The project described in the dossier aims to reduce the generation gap and improve the quality of life of young men and women through a series of thematic initiatives organised in eight ‘Piazze’ (Squares) and four ‘ Routes’, promoting active participation, social inclusion and sustainability. These ‘Piazze’ and ‘ Routes’ will be both physical and symbolic spaces to facilitate meetings, discussions and concrete actions for a more inclusive and sustainable future for Parma and Europe. Since the origins of its urban creation, the Piazza has been a place for active participation and politics, but also for discussion, encounters, markets, food and economy; diversity meets in the piazza and paths transform the landscape. With this metaphor, our project will offer different opportunities for young people to experience the squares as a place of democratic and meaningful participation.

The bidbook is entitled ‘Parma, a big Piazza (square) for Europe’ and is the result of an extensive participatory process involving hundreds of girls and boys under 30 and more than two hundred local and national associations. The proposal envisages a collaborative and inclusive approach that extends beyond 2027, in order to create a permanent platform for dialogue and participation between young people and society, capable of realising the protagonism of the city's youth community.

The dossier was presented by the Municipality of Parma together with JEP Junior Enterprise Parma, in collaboration with the Parma Youth Commission and the National Youth Council, and with many local, regional and national realities networking.

The year 2027 will be the opportunity for Parma to show the social, economic and cultural development linked to youth. The candidature process began in 2023 and last spring Parma was selected - the only Italian city - among the five finalists for the title of European Youth Capital 2027. For Parma, it was the first time in the finals, where it beat the cities of Chișinău in Moldova, Fuenlabrada and Málaga in Spain, and Skopje in North Macedonia.

Mayor Michele Guerra said: ‘European Youth Capital is an indescribable emotion, it is the work of more than two years that has taken shape, step by step, in three dossiers that have become more and more articulate, challenging and valuable for us. Today, in Ghent, this victory gives us an enormous honour and responsibility. We will know how to live up to it, because we owe it to all the boys and girls who have realised this project. I have never tired of repeating that this is a project in which the city of Parma has simply opened up a real space for young people, and they have been able to fill it with ideas, content, and creativity, arriving here. Tonight, being here with them was a truly intense experience, in the heart of an idea of Europe that we will know how to enhance in our city. Now we must work, from now on, with the same care and the same ability that we have shown in these two years, so that 2027 for Parma will not only be an unforgettable year, but one that will be able to make us grow and change the very idea that we have of the city'.