In 2010, relevant stakeholders in the youth field expressed the need for a better coordination and observation of activities at European level in the field of recognition of youth work and of non-formal learning. The EU-CoE youth partnership was invited to play such a coordination role and therefore established as of 2011 an Expert Group on Recognition which meets bi-annually. In 2015 the Lifelong Learning Platform was invited to share its views with the expert group and applied to become a permanent member. This report highlights processes the Expert Group has been directly or indirectly connected to or involved in. The Lifelong Learning Platform advocated for an overall process towards the recognition of non-formal and informal learning (NFIL) taking place within youth organisations. The LLLPlatform also explored validation methods in practice within the GR-EAT project (led together with AEGEE) that aims to propose a comprehensive tool for the implementation of recognition systems. More information can be found in our latest Position Paper on Validation.