Youth on the Move: tensions between EU and national level policies

The European Union has set its sights on improving the mobility of young European citizens. As part of its Europe 2020 strategy, the EU aims to increase the mobility of young people throughout Europe to enhance the employability and education of this group. The EU’s package of policy instruments, Youth on the Move, has been developed with the intent to tailor education and training more to the needs of young Europeans and to encourage young Europeans to travel within Europe for studying or training purposes. With Youth on the Move, the EU is also encouraging EU member states to remove barriers in the transition from education to work for young Europeans (European Commission, 2014). Alongside these broader European level guidelines, the EU also sets out a number of country-level recommendations for individual member states across a wide array of topics, including the mobility of young persons. Member states outline their progress towards meeting these recommendations in annual National Reform Programmes. But the extent to which discrepancies exist between national social, political and legal systems and EU policy initiatives is unclear. This paper sets out to clarify what discrepancies exist and what this means for young mobile Europeans. Questions central to the paper include: What European guidelines and directives exist in relation to the rights of mobile youth and to what extent are these EU guidelines and directives evident in the National Reform Plans of the 27 Member States? Are there tensions visible between EU guidelines on family rights and obligations in relation to the rights of mobile youth and the policies of member states? This paper outlines and analyses the tensions arising in the transposition of EU recommendations and guidelines in the 27 National Reform Programmes with regard to mobile youth. These tensions are placed within the context of gender and generational interdependencies and are analysed by taking a policy-scientific approach.