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The ECB President will meet Andrea Ceccherini and young Europeans from the Young Factor programme on 5 November, as the financial education initiative expands across the continent
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde will return to Italy on 5 November 2026 for a public dialogue in Milan with hundreds of European students, putting financial education and the role of younger generations at the centre of the debate on Europe’s economic future.
The event, scheduled for 4 p.m., will bring Lagarde together once again with Andrea Ceccherini, leader of Osservatorio for independent thinking, and students participating in Young Factor, a major Italian economic and financial education programme involving more than 700,000 young people.
In keeping with the organisation’s approach, the Milan event will be reserved exclusively for young participants. The aim is to give students direct access to one of Europe’s most influential economic policymakers and an opportunity to discuss the forces reshaping their economic environment.
Young Factor goes European
Lagarde’s visit comes as Young Factor enters a new phase of international expansion. Supported in Italy by Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit Group, the programme has already established a presence in Germany and Spain, while initiatives are being tested in France, the Netherlands and Portugal.
The development reflects the ambition behind Young Factor Europe, an initiative designed to take financial literacy beyond national borders and create a shared European platform for economic education.
The project was officially presented in Milan in June 2025, when Osservatorio for independent thinking brought together the governors of the central banks of Italy, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Portugal. All five also serve on the organisation’s Advisory Board.
Just over a year later, Young Factor Europe has moved from announcement to implementation, providing the broader framework for November’s meeting with Lagarde.
Financial literacy as a European challenge
The initiative comes at a particularly significant moment. Young Europeans are entering adulthood in an economic landscape transformed by inflation, higher interest rates, digital payments, cryptocurrencies, artificial intelligence and profound changes in the labour market.
At the same time, financial decisions are becoming increasingly complex. Understanding borrowing costs, mortgages, savings, investments, pensions and the effects of inflation is no longer specialist knowledge: it is becoming an essential part of navigating everyday life.
For the ECB, engaging younger generations also has a wider institutional significance. Monetary policy can often appear remote from daily experience, yet decisions taken in Frankfurt influence the cost of credit, returns on savings, business investment and ultimately employment and household purchasing power.
Bringing students into direct contact with policymakers can therefore help bridge the gap between institutions and citizens while encouraging young people to understand how economic decisions are made and how they affect society.
The issue is especially relevant in Italy, where improving financial literacy has long been regarded as an important educational challenge. Extending initiatives such as Young Factor across Europe could also help create a common vocabulary through which students from different countries can interpret economic events that increasingly transcend national boundaries.
Critical thinking against manipulation
For Ceccherini, however, the objective extends beyond teaching students the mechanics of economics and finance. It is also about developing the intellectual tools needed to distinguish facts from manipulation in an information environment increasingly shaped by social media, algorithms and artificial intelligence.
“We at Osservatorio for independent thinking want to keep young people inside the discussions that matter and give them the opportunity to enter the heart of the issues that are revolutionising our time, engaging as equals with the leading figures in the field, so that they can increasingly become agents of change,” Ceccherini said.
The organisation works with tens of thousands of European teachers with the goal of combining financial education with critical thinking. According to Ceccherini, these skills should enable younger generations not only to understand events more deeply, but also to defend themselves against increasingly pervasive forms of manipulation and propaganda.
Lagarde’s Milan appearance therefore carries a significance that goes beyond a single meeting. As Young Factor develops into a genuinely European project, the event will test a broader idea: that preparing young people for Europe’s economic future requires more than teaching them how money works. It means giving them the knowledge, independence of judgement and direct access to institutions needed to understand — and eventually help shape — the decisions that will define their generation.
Alessandro Fiorentino