A New Youth Policy for Europe - Towards the Empowerment and Inclusion for all Young People

International and European youth policy is a main pillar of national youth policy for Germany with the latter being continually refined and adapted on the basis of the former. Germany clearly expresses its view that bilateral and multilateral collaboration and cooperation in youth policy within the EU have great significance. This provides the basis for a more intense utilisation of international experience and makes it possible to give impetus for furthering the development of national youth policies. This will help, eventually, to create a stronger influence of national youth policies on European and international strategies. On this background the federal youth ministry has established the program “European Peer Learning on Youth Policy” in late 2011 and invited six other member states, namely France, Sweden, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and the Flemish speaking community in Belgium, to: - exchange experience regarding concepts and practice of youth policy; - jointly further the development of strategies in youth policy; - generate recommendations for youth policy in the member states and in Europe. With its Peer Learning the project also contributes to implementing the EU Youth Strategy in Germany and in Europe. This brochure summarises the main findings of the two-year joint learning process and establishes six theses regarding youth policy which have been formulated and agreed by all involved partners.