Policy transfer and adaptation : a case study on the youth guarantee council recommendation

Abstract

Due to globalisation, the concept of policy transfer became easier and faster. As a result, policy-makers and international institutions such as the European Union are constantly relying upon policy transfer. The purpose of this research was to study how European Union policies on youth unemployment such as the Youth Guarantee Recommendation transfer to Member States. Following the high youth unemployment rates in a number of European Member States such as Spain, Greece and Italy, on the 22nd April 2013, the European Union issued a Council Recommendation on establishing a Youth Guarantee. All Member States were encouraged to transfer this policy to their local arenas and design a National Youth Implementation Plan to address the high rates of youth unemployment and inactivity in their countries. The policy transfer framework adopted for this research was the one developed by Dolowitz and Marsh in 1996 and revisited in 2000. The European Commission confirmed that due to the alarming situation of high rates of youth unemployment and inactivity, action had to be taken. The European Commission drew lessons from the Nordic Countries and Austria and vertically transferred the policy to the Member States through a Council Recommendation. A qualitative analysis was implemented by conducting a number of elite interviews with key stakeholders. As a case study, the research analysed how Malta’s Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan and measures were realised and adapted. The adaptation analysis was based on the ‘strategic-projection’ model of Europeanisation developed by Scott. The ‘strategic-projection’ model of Europeanisation in this study was based on supranational learning. The monitoring and evaluation stages of the policy-making cycle also emerged as being fundamental in ensuring that the policy transfer led to successful results.