Franco-German Youth Office



The Franco-German Youth Office (FGYO; Office franco-allemand pour la Jeunesse, OFAJ; Deutsch-Französisches Jugendwerk, DFJW) is an organisation to subsidize programs for children, adolescents and young adults. Its main goal is to intensify the Franco-German relationships through cultural exchanges for young people.

History
The Youth Office was one of the first institutions created on the basis of the Élysée Treaty that was signed in 1963 in Paris. The FGYO was originally headquartered in Rhöndorf near Bonn, then the West German capital. In December 2000, the last employees moved out from there. It is now headquartered in Paris, with its main German office in Berlin and a branch office, which opened in 2014, in Saarbrücken.

Since 1963 the organisation has financed projects for 9.5 million young Germans and French through participation in 382.000 exchange programs. In 2022 it organised 5,921 events with about 122,000 participants.

The FGYO's funding has been increased in decisions made by the annual Franco-German Ministerial Council. It is considered to have contributed to ending the centuries of French–German enmity. The organisation is responsible for administering the Franco-German Citizen Fund (Bürgerfonds, fonds citoyen).