Adina Marina Calafateanu

European Youth Policy Regarding Active Youth Participation: Study Analysis: Gorj County, Romania Adina Marina Calafateanu

The permanent pejorative discourse about the lack of interest of youngsters into the local, national and European affairs was the main determinative of the present research. Started as a motivation to explore the participatory frame offered by the European Union for the active youth participation in the decision ? making process at the local level, the research was developed gradually from October 2008 until June 2009. Based on the voluntary performance of the Member States and on the Open Method of Coordination as a methodological approach in the youth policy domain, I had been particularly interested to see what the performance of the New Member States was when it comes to the active youth participation policy. Thus, on nationality basis and on the access to the resources, to have accurate results of my research I choose to focus my work on a particular geographical area in Romania ? Gorj County, identifying the transfer mechanisms of the European Youth Policy at the local level.