Pillar 5 – Improved Social Cohesion

Strategic Project EUSAIR POPRI Youth (POPRI-SOCIAL)

Pillar 5 strengthened EUSAIR POPRI Youth by formally integrating social entrepreneurship, empowering young people to design business models with measurable social impact across the Adriatic–Ionian Region.

Strengthening the Social Entrepreneurship Dimension of EUSAIR POPRI Youth (POPRI-SOCIAL)

EUSAIR POPRI Youth is a long-standing macro-regional flagship initiative supporting entrepreneurial learning among young people across all ten EUSAIR countries. Over six implementation cycles, it has demonstrated strong engagement of high-school and university students in developing innovative business ideas. Pillar 5 recognised a consistent pattern across POPRI editions: youth business models increasingly embed social value, community benefit and sustainability, yet this dimension remained informal and insufficiently structured. The POPRI-SOCIAL strategic project represents a concrete Pillar 5 achievement in addressing this gap by formally integrating social entrepreneurship into the POPRI framework.

The achievement was developed throughout 2025, with conceptualisation and stakeholder consultations conducted within TSG5 and POPRI partner meetings. The strategic project fiche was finalised and endorsed for further development in early 2026.

The achievement institutionalised social entrepreneurship as a recognised and measurable component of youth entrepreneurial learning within EUSAIR Pillar 5. It strengthened youth participation in macro-regional governance, reinforced cross-border cooperation, and aligned POPRI more closely with Pillar 5 priorities on social innovation, skills for future labour markets and inclusive youth engagement.

• POPRI network covering 10 EUSAIR countries
• Engagement of technology parks, incubators and educational institutions across the macro-region
• Introduction of 1 new macro-regional award category focused on social impact
• Structured involvement of the EUSAIR Youth Council representatives from all participating countries

MedDiet Cross-Pillar Flagship Development

Through Pillar 5, the MedDiet flagship integrates youth, skills and social innovation, transforming the Mediterranean Diet into a driver of inclusive growth and social cohesion across EUSAIR.

Pillar 5 Contribution to the MedDiet Cross-Pillar Flagship Initiative

The Mediterranean Diet (MD) is internationally recognised not only as a nutritional model, but as a cultural, social and economic system rooted in community practices, knowledge transmission and sustainable lifestyles. In 2025, EUSAIR’s Pillar 4 launched the development of a cross-pillar flagship initiative positioning the Mediterranean Diet as a strategic tool for sustainable tourism, local development and social cohesion. Pillar 5 played a key role in embedding the human capital, youth and skills dimension within this flagship.

The achievement emerged from cross-pillar consultations and workshops in 2025, notably following the Bari Mediterranean Diet conference and subsequent flagship-development processes. Pillar 5 contributions were consolidated by late 2025, forming an integral part of the MEDDIET flagship concept approved for further development.

Pillar 5 contributed by ensuring that youth engagement, education and labour-market relevance were fully integrated into the MedDiet flagship. Activities included:

• Defining human-capital development as a core pillar of the initiative, linking education, skills and employability to MD value chains;
• Designing youth-focused components such as skills academies, entrepreneurship labs and inter-generational knowledge transfer;
• Aligning MedDiet activities with Pillar 5 priorities on social innovation, youth employment and future-oriented skills;

The achievement ensured that the MedDiet flagship moved beyond a cultural or tourism-only concept and became a comprehensive socio-economic development framework. Pillar 5 successfully positioned youth, skills and social innovation as enabling factors for sustainable Mediterranean Diet ecosystems, contributing to territorial cohesion and inclusive growth.