Introduction

This first chapter introduces the general context of the study: it starts by pointing out the transnational powers of an organisation such as the European Union, which have been used to tackle the global financial crisis in 2007/2008. These powers are nevertheless restrained, as there are still many policy areas exclusive to the national legislatures of the European member states. This is especially true regarding the area of social policy – including policies to support e.g., young people, who were impacted by the financial crisis to a rather large degree. Interestingly though, the EU found a way to gain influence in those areas by the Open Method of Coordination (OMC). The OMC is an instrument of soft, non-binding law, opening up the potential of national variance as there is no obligation on what and how to implement the different measures of a specific OMC. Using this instrument, the so-called European Youth Strategy was created in 2010 to introduce different possibilities to support young people. However, there is nearly no evidence to measure the impacts of this strategy – and whether there are factors that influenced the variance of its adoption. Both questions shall be answered within the following chapters.