As there is no youth law in Hungary, the term 'youth' is not set in stone and is therefore defined differently in the various legislations of the different policy areas. The strategic framework of Hungarian youth policy consists of two main documents,

• the National Youth Strategy 2009-2024 (adopted by the parliament in 2009) and
• the 2012 Programme for the Future of the New Generation, which came into force as a government decree.

The Strategy, as a core document, has set the main directions of improvement through the implementation of specific action plans that take into account the continuous review of conditions. The revision of the Strategy is ongoing. The last adopted action plan referred to 2016 and 2017, but the Strategy is still frequently mentioned in youth-related policy discourses and legislation. The Programme for the Future of the New Generation was the conceptual basis for the mostly EU-funded youth-related projects under New Generation Plus, followed by the New Generation Reloaded Programmes. (For more information see sub-chapter 1.3 National Youth Strategy.)

Youth policy is mainly managed in the Ministry for Culture and Innovation where the State Secretariat for Families is located. The agencies responsible for youth policy are the Deputy State Secretariat for Youth Affairs and the Department for Youth Affairs. The Ministry of Finance coordinates the Youth Guarantee Scheme and a Ministerial Representative of the Ministry of Agriculture carries out the tasks related to the situation of young people in agriculture. An advisory body on youth policy was the Roundtable for Youth, where youth experts and organisations can contribute their expertise to decision-making. Since 2020, the Roundtable has not been convened due to the pandemic situation. The main advisory body for youth issues is currently the Board of the Children and Youth Fund.