Youth Policy of the European Union : Implementation of the EU Youth Strategy for the action to reduce early school leavers within two member states.

This is a case study with purpose to examine the implementation of the European Union Youth Strategy and the action of reducing early school leavers, which was put in force with the youth field of the European Union in 2010. The strategy contains of eight action fields, onwards only the field within education & training will be examined further in line with the strategy’s main objective to provide equal opportunities for young people in education. The theory of Normalization Process Theory focuses on policy implementation and how it becomes fully embedded within the intended society. Throughout the examination will be of how the implementation is supposed to work and how it actually is put into action within the two member states selected for this study, Sweden and Cyprus. The question to examine is to what degree has ‘the EU Youth Strategy’, and the fact of it being implemented within the member states, influenced the reduction of early school leavers. Through the method of comparative case study approach, materials were gattered throughout a variety of forms such as legislations, policies, evaluations, reports and many more. The analysis consists of the implementations of the action into the states, through what institutions and national legislations, as well as analysing the received grant from the European Union and what it has produced within the states. In conclusion, presenting the results of Sweden and Cyprus, both succeeding to reduce early school leavers, nevertheless, through different actions and interpretations of the strategy