Youth policy in the Baltic Sea Region - a case study of Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, and Polish youth participation in the BSSSC Working Group on Youth Policy

ENYouth policy, understood as youth activity and policy for youth, has been developing in the Baltic Sea region for many years. It takes place on many levels of Baltic cooperation; therefore, this article uses the theory of multi-level governance for the analysis. There are some differences in youth policy between the communities of the Baltic Sea Region countries. This article aims to analyse the participation of young people from the regions of Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, and Estonia in the BSR youth policy, based on the example of the Youth Working Group of the “Baltic Sea States Subregional Co-operation”. The main part of the article is an analysis of interviews with youth coordinators of “Baltic Sea States Subregional Co-operation” from selected countries. During the study, 5 interviews were conducted, and, thanks to these interviews, the author has made interesting observations on the differences in involvement of young people from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Poland. They indicated, inter alia, disproportional access to participation in the work of the Youth Working Group “Baltic Sea States Subregional Co-operation” between Estonia and Poland, and Lithuania and Latvia. The results clearly show that young people from Polish regions have the greatest opportunities to shape youth policy in the Baltic Sea Region.