Young Central Asia. Study on the Feasibility of a Youth Policy Dimension in EU-Central Asia Relations
The EU’s Central Asia policy is competing with Russia and China for influence in the five states of the Central Asian region. As the EU is neither likely to match the volume of Chinese funds earmarked for infrastructural investments under the Belt and Road Initiative nor the common Soviet legacy shared by Russia and the Central Asian countries, it should focus on potentially less competitive policy areas under its Central Asia Strategy of 2019. In the study “Young Central Asia. Recommendations to the German Government for the Implementation of the EU-Central Asia Strategy” of the Institut fuer Europaeische Politik, Berlin, Julian Plottka, who is member of the EUCON Jean Monnet Network, Yvonne Braun and Ekaterina Smirnova analyse the feasibility of a new youth policy dimension in the EU’s relations with Central Asia.
The study, prepared by IEP on behalf of the German Federal Foreign Office, analyses the challenges and potentials of a youth policy dimension in EU-Central Asia relations. A deepening of relations in youth policy is beneficial for both sides and does not directly challenge Chinese or Russian ambitions in the region. Furthermore, a youth policy dimension of the EU’s Central Asia policy offers the opportunity to improve the EU’s visibility in the region. To seize this opportunity, the study makes concrete policy recommendations and proposes an intra-European division of labour to create the new youth policy dimension in EU-Central Asia relations.
Read the complete study here.