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1. Existence of a National Youth Strategy

2. Scope and contents

3. Responsible authority for the implementation of the Youth Strategy

4. Revisions/updates

Existence of a National Youth Strategy

National Youth Strategy

Since the 2024 expiry of the National Youth Strategy (NYS), Hungary has had no strategic policy document on youth. While the Programme for the Future of the New Generation was introduced as a government decree in 2012, it did not have a defined timeframe and has since seen diminishing references in policy documents and discourses, but is still mentioned among the tasks of the State Secretary for Higher Education, Vocational and Adult Education, and Youth Affairs, who 'fulfils the tasks arising from the Programme for the Future of the New Generation youth policy framework programme'.

Scope and contents

The National Youth Strategy

Main elements

The NYS expired in 2024 and has not been replaced. The Strategy adopted in 2009 aimed to support the social integration of young people and harness their potential. It focused on youth development, improving living conditions, and supporting youth workers, guided by integration, solidarity, and transparency principles. It emphasised the state's role in fostering integration, maintaining institutions, and providing services, with objectives addressing equal opportunities, cultural identity, and sustainability.

Specific target groups

Currently, there is no youth strategy in Hungary. The 2009-2024 one did not explicitly define specific target groups but had objectives related to inclusion, solidarity, and equality between men and women.

Programme for the Future of the New Generation (PFNG)

The programme identified four areas for intervention:

• citizenship,
• housing and starting a family,
• career and self-sufficiency,
• leisure time consists of sports, entertainment and consumption of culture.

The tasks of this programme are assigned to the State Secretariat for Higher Education, Vocational and Adult Education, and Youth Affairs in the Ministry of Culture and Innovation (Kulturális és Innovációs Minisztérium).

Responsible authority for the implementation of the Youth Strategy

In the Government, formed in 2022, youth affairs and the implementation of the PFNG (and the coordination of inter-governmental elements) take place in the Ministry of Culture and Innovation (Kulturális és Innovációs Minisztérium), in the Department for Young People (Fiatalokért Felelős Főosztály) that belongs to the Deputy State Secretariat for Young People (Fiatalokért Felelős Helyettes Államtitkárság) under the State Secretariat for Higher Education, Vocational and Adult Education, and Youth Affairs (Felsőoktatásért, Szak- és Felnőttképzésért, Fiatalokért Felelős Államtitkárság).

The Youth Strategy included an objective to conduct large sample youth research projects every four years on a representative sample of 8 000 15-29-year-olds. The findings of the survey are often referred to in youth policy planning. The latest research was conducted in 2024 on a widened age group of 15-34-year-olds and a decreased sample size of 5 000 individuals. The Department for Young People follows the publication of the results of each cycle and uses the findings for strategic planning. The results are still not published.

Revisions/updates

According to the information provided by the ministry in 2024, the strategic planning related to youth policy mainly takes into account the EU Youth Strategy, as well as the government's priorities regarding family planning, the provision of financial and moral support for it, the promotion of work-life balance for young people, and reflection on the impact of digitalisation, epidemics, wars and economic crises. The creation of a new strategy is not currently on the agenda.