Education and Youth Policy of the EU as an Instrument of the Eastern Partnership on the Example of Ukraine and Belarus

After the Ukrainian crisis of 2013-2014 and the actual rupture of relations between the EU and Russia, many participating countries are forced to be torn between the spheres of influence of these two powerful actors in the international arena. It is difficult to call the EU's democratization towards its Eastern neighbors effective for a number of reasons: Russia's influence on the state and opposition to EU policy; insufficient motivation of the Union to take decisive action due to the lack of prospects for joining most of the participating countries; hybrid political regimes in the participating countries. However, there are areas that are less sensitive to the political agenda – one of them is youth policy. The EU's youth policy is nothing more than a manifestation of the Union's normative power. Despite the fact that since 2000, according to Ian Manners , the EU has increasingly resorted to military force – as a simpler and faster solution, the spread of universal EU norms and principles – the EU's regulatory force does not lose its relevance. EU youth policy in the Eastern partnership countries is one of the most interesting areas for research in the context of analyzing the implementation and change of the EU's normative approach. Based on the example of two Eastern partnership countries - Ukraine and Belarus, selected for comparative characteristics of the EU youth policy, the author considered the main approaches of the Union to this area, the implementation of EU activities in this area in official documents and in practice, the ability of the EU normative approach to be flexible.