On 7 January 2024, the 98th General Electoral Assembly of the National Youth Council (CNJ) was held in Coimbra, where the new governing bodies were elected: the Board of Directors, the Board of the General Assembly and the Supervisory Board.


The President of ESN Portugal, José Francisco Silva, was elected a member of the Board of the National Youth Council for the 2024-2026 term. The CNJ is the representative platform for national youth organisations and all young people.


At the helm of the CNJ, remains Rui Oliveira (National Scout Corps), re-elected for a new term.


ESN Portugal's candidacy focused on five key areas of action: internationalisation, democratic participation, entrepreneurship, volunteering and governance. The first, as the genesis of the organisation, was the main motivation for the candidacy: the representation of international youth on the national scene, particularly the inclusion of young people from the CPLP. As well as, respectively, the promotion of youth voting in the next democratic processes, bureaucratic simplification in the creation of companies and associations by young people, recognition of youth volunteer work and, finally, the implementation of the organisation's long-term plan.


José Francisco Silva is 24 years old, has a Master's degree in Quantitative Methods in Finance and a degree in Management from the University of Coimbra. He began his career in the organisation five years ago at ESN
Coimbra, where he held the positions of Treasurer and then President; in parallel with his active participation in ESN Portugal, of which he is currently President. He has always held "internationalisation at home" firmly as his personal banner, opening doors to student representation as the University of Coimbra's Student Representative at the European Campus of City Universities and as a member of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Youth Council of Coimbra.


The organisation's objectives focus on integrating international students into local communities, promoting international student mobility and defending quality and accessible education for all individuals, through its 13 local associations (Algarve, Almada, Aveiro, Castelo Branco, Coimbra, Covilhã, Evora, Lisbon, Madeira, Minho, Porto, Tomar and UTAD).