European Youth Policies
What is the European standard of youth policy and what do we need to do to reach this level?”
This question is often asked by youth policy activists and government officials who want their country to get on the path to membership of the European Union, or who otherwise have an ambition to increase the quality of their national youth policy and would like to see a blueprint for the necessary requirements for living up to a “European” or “international” standard of youth policy.
So, is there a blueprint or a formula, with clear goals and objectives, for what a European or international youth policy is, or should be? Inevitably, there is no short or simple answer to this question. As mentioned in the previous chapter, a national youth policy depends on the context and reality of each and every country. Priorities and challenges will obviously differ in the countries of Albania, Austria and Armenia – three countries which are all member states of the Council of Europe. Having said this, however, the European intergovernmental institutions (the Council of Europe and the European Union) have become strong advocates of the development of national youth policies in Europe – in particular over the last decade – and a number of decisions have been taken and resolutions and documents adopted, which suggest that it does make sense to talk about a European standard of youth policy. And while these documents, decisions and practices do not lead to a blueprint for a national youth policy, they do suggest certain criteria, indicators and lists of areas to be covered within such a policy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKgWyGrMPbg
At the international level, a number of documents relating to youth policy have been developed and/or adopted by organizations within the United Nations system as well, suggesting that there is also an international standard of what should be considered a national youth policy.
Let us take a closer look at the European and international organizations in question, and see how they address youth policy issues through their decisions and practices. By doing so, we can learn a lot about what can be considered “European” and “international” standards of youth policy, and how they can be guiding principles for national youth policy in Europe and beyond.
About EU policy in the youth field
In Europe youth policies at national level are formulated according to the country priorities and realities but often they are also inspired and shaped by the themes and priorities of the European Union and the Council of Europe, which have their own particular missions and mandates.
European Union
In the EU, youth policy is mainly the domain of the Member States. However, the different ministers have agreed on a renewed framework for cooperation in the youth field through (Links to an external site.)
The EU Youth Strategy 2010 - 2018 (Links to an external site.)
which aims to improve access and full participation of young people in society, and to foster mutual solidarity between society and young people.
A new EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027 (Links to an external site.)
is the framework for EU youth policy cooperation for 2019-2027, based on the Council Resolution of 26 November 2018 (Links to an external site.)
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The goals of the EU Youth Strategy 2019 - 2027 are to:
- Enable young people to be architects of their own lives, build their resilience and equip them with life skills to cope in a changing world;
- Encourage young people to become active citizens, agents of solidarity and positive change for communities across Europe, inspired by EU values and a European identity;
- Help prevent youth social exclusion;
- Improve the impact of policy decisions on young people through dialogue and addressing their needs across sectors.
The EU Youth Strategy focuses on three core areas of action: Engage, (Links to an external site.)
Connect, (Links to an external site.)
Empower (Links to an external site.)
, while working on joined-up implementation across sectors. The objectives of the new EU Youth Strategy 2019/2027 include:
- Specific youth initiatives, targeted at young people to encourage non-formal learning, participation, voluntary activities, youth work, mobility and information
- 'Mainstreaming' cross-sector initiatives that ensure youth issues are taken into account when formulating, implementing and evaluating policies and actions in other fields with a significant impact on young people, such as education, employment or health and well-being
The EU Youth Strategy is based on several instruments, including The EU Youth Dialogue (Links to an external site.)
which serves as a forum for youth participation on the priorities, implementation and follow-up of European cooperation in the youth field. It involves decision-makers, youth organisations, experts and young people, including those with fewer opportunities.
Council of Europe
The youth policy of the Council of Europe (Links to an external site.)
is defined in the strategic document “Agenda 2020 (Links to an external site.)
”, which sets the priorities in the youth field for this institution until 2020, including: human rights and democracy; living together in diverse societies; and social inclusion of young people.
The Council of Europe has developed a programme of support measures for youth policy development in the member states and Signatories to the European Cultural Convention to help them adopt the Council of Europe’s youth policy standards when designing their youth policies. These measures (Links to an external site.)
include seminars and capacity-building through non-formal educational activities, international reviews of national youth policies, secondments, peer-learning, independent expertise or assessment, study visits and advisory missions.
The Council of Europe works with countries represented in the European Steering Committee for Youth (Links to an external site.)
(CDEJ) and with youth organisations represented in the Advisory Council on Youth (Links to an external site.)
. The Joint Council on Youth (CMJ) brings together the European Steering Committee for Youth (CDEJ) (Links to an external site.)
and the Advisory Council on Youth (CCJ) (Links to an external site.)
. It is a co-decision-making body which establishes the youth sector's priorities, objectives and budgets.
The Joint Council has drawn up a roadmap for the development of the Council of Europe's new mid-term youth strategy, provisionally entitled Youth Sector Strategy 2030 (Links to an external site.)
The EU-CoE youth partnership
The European Commission and the Council of Europe work together in the field of youth and seek synergies through their EU-CoE youth partnership (Links to an external site.)
on issues that justify a common European approach. For example, the EU-Council of Europe youth partnership collects and elaborates knowledge for the development of youth policy and youth work.
ABOUT THE YOUTH WIKI
What is the Youth Wiki? https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/en/youthwiki
The Youth Wiki is an online platform presenting information on European countries' youth policies.
The main objective of the Youth Wiki is to support evidence-based European cooperation in the field of Youth. It does so by providing information on national policies in support of young people – in a user-friendly and continuously updated way.
What is the content of Youth Wiki's pages?
The content of the Youth Wiki is shaped by the policy priorities established by the European Commission and the Member States in the framework of the European cooperation in the youth field.
In particular, it is developed in view of supporting major European-level commitments and policy developments for the fields of action identified in the EU Youth Strategy.
The information is provided and annually updated by National Correspondents (NCs), designated by the governments of each participating country. It is essentially qualitative, and allows for the analysis of reforms and trends in policy orientations in the participating countries.
The main source of information consists of official documents originating from national top-level authorities in the youth field, i.e. the authorities with responsibility for youth policy in each country.
NCs also refer to studies, surveys, analyses or assessments/evaluations conducted directly by public authorities or commissioned to research centres, experts, think-tanks and the like.
National descriptions very seldom report national data and statistics as these are often collected through country-specific methodologies whose results can only be comprehended in the national context.
EU Cooperation in Youth Policy
EUROPEAN COOPERATION IN THE YOUTH FIELD
Member States of the European Union, together with other European countries participating in the EU Erasmus+ programme, collaborate in the development of their youth policies with the support of the European Commission. Their cooperation is based on a methodology known as the 'Open Method of Coordination' (OMC) by which representatives of the national governments and of the Commission meet regularly to identify and define joint policy objectives or specific common challenges to address.
The EU Youth Strategy provides the overarching framework for this cooperation amongst EU Member States and the European countries participating in the Erasmus+ programme. The Strategy identifies priorities and establishes instruments to reach the agreed goals.
The current EU Youth Strategy was agreed by Ministers in November 2018 and runs until 2027.
Summary
From around year 2000, a whole new dynamic had been created in Europe around the theme of youth policy. The United Nations held its 1rst ever Conference of Ministers for Youth in Lisbon in 1998. A specific reference to youth had been made in the Declaration of the European Council in Laeken in 2001, 14 and the European Commission launched its White Paper on Youth in November that same year. The 5th and the 6th Conferences of European Ministers responsible for Youth were held in Romania in 1998 and in Greece in 2002, respectively, and the Council of Europe and the European Commission launched in the same period a new partnership in the youth 1eld. Furthermore, the Council of Europe had developed a mechanism of international reviews of national youth policy, which was becoming well established.
In South-Eastern Europe, the Stability Pact Working Group on Youth, consisting of European and international organizations and national governments, was established in 2000. The strongest point on its agenda was to promote the development of national youth strategies in the region. This contributed to the 1rst national youth action plan of a country in the region – Romania, in 2001.
Within this context, a discussion of what should be considered a “European standard” of youth policy had become ever more relevant. The Council of Europe therefore decided to invite a group of experts with a research profile to come together and make some policy recommendations to be addressed to the statutory bodies of the Council of Europe youth sector. This resulted in a report which has since been cited by many as providing the best model so far for what should be considered a more universal standard of youth policy, at least for Europe.