Supporting young people in Europe- Volume 2

Supporting young people in Europe - Volume 2 - Lessons from the ‘second seven’ Council of Europe international reviews of national youth policy This monograph has two purposes. The first is to develop the framework that was initially established through a grounded reading of the material from the first seven international reviews of national youth policy conducted through the Council of Europe Youth Directorate between 1997 and 2001 (see Williamson 2002). This has involved a careful reading of the subsequent national and international reports produced between 2002 and 20062 to identify those issues that merit either greater prominence or their introduction for the first time. The outcome of this exercise is the proposal of a new framework within which European-level debates on the subject of ‘youth policy’ should be taking place. The second purpose is, through consulting with those who have been part of these more recent reviews, to refine further the process by which international reviews are carried out. Though the response to requests for reflection and commentary from all those who had taken part was rather disappointing, it was sufficiently consistent and persuasive to suggest that there is immediate action that can be taken to improve the experience of participating in review teams and, thereby, ultimately, the quality of the international reports. Finally, the benchmarks against which ‘youth policy’ is, and might be, considered are outlined, indicating the need for further and more penetrating debate on an issue that is recurrently discussed but rarely reaches any definitive conclusion.