Schematic illustration of the mechanism for the excitation of kink oscillations of coronal loops, observed in the majority of the studied events. a) Pre-eruption state of the active region. b) Displacement of a coronal loop (solid black curve) from its equilibrium state (dashed black line) by an erupting and expanding plasma structure, e.g. a flux rope (grey loop-shaped structure). c) Oscillatory relaxation of the loop to its equilibrium state after the eruption.