Youth Policies in Europe

Drawing upon material from several research projects, this article attempts to classify youth policies in the European Union according to a variety of dimensions: the organisation ofthe youth sector, the target groups for youth policies, the definitions ofyouth and the main purposes ofyouth policies. One problem in undertaking this exercise is that not only are youth policies highly diverse between countries, but they are also diverse within countries, being decentralised towards the regional/local level and the voluntary sector in many countries. The paper goes on to look at aspects of the ‘Europeanisation’ of youth policies.