Athens will host the heart of European student and youth entrepreneurship in July, as Junior Achievement Greece is organising, for the first time, Europe’s largest youth entrepreneurship competition, the “JA Europe/Gen-E 2025.”
From 1–3 July 2025, Athens will welcome more than 1,000 visitors, including students and “startuppers” from 40 European countries. The Gen-E 2025 Festival, held under the aegis of the European Commission, will also attract European and Greek officials, educators, and top business executives.
The choice of Greece for the event follows the significant achievements of Greek student teams in recent years, winning the European top prize for two consecutive years (2022 and 2023) and the global top prize in 2024 under Junior Achievement.
“Trace your path forward” is the theme of this year’s Gen-E Festival, calling on the youth of Europe to draw inspiration from the past—rooted in the wisdom of ancient Greece—while looking towards the future. The Gen-E acronym stands for “Generation of Europeans” committed to the 3 Es: Entrepreneurship, Education, and Employment. The Gen-E 2025 Festival has already launched online at www.gen-e.eu. The virtual Student and University Expo will open in May, showcasing hundreds of innovative business ideas, culminating in the in-person three-day festival and awards ceremony in Athens.
During the festival, Junior Achievement Greece will celebrate its teams’ successes and its 20th anniversary.
Salvatore Nigro, CEO of JA Europe, stated, “At JA Europe, we are excited to host the leading annual European Gen-E Festival in Greece. The country’s ancient and modern history helps us design a better future. JA Greece inspires our European network with its remarkable impact on Greece’s youth and its broader entrepreneurial education ecosystem.”
The “JA Europe Gen-E 2025” competition will mark the culmination of Junior Achievement’s annual activities, including the JA Company Program and JA Start-Up, engaging over 650,000 students and university participants from across Europe. Through these programmes, students create their own start-ups. National finals are held after the Student Trade Fairs in February and March, with the winning teams representing their countries in the European finals.
Source: ANA-MPA
