Big week for youth at the European Parliament plenary

This week at the European Parliament plenary in Strasbourg MEPs took some strong steps forward for youth, yesterday adopting a report on the Assessment of the EU Youth Strategy 2013-2015, as well as a resolution on the European Voluntary Service and the promotion of volunteering in Europe and earlier in the week, investment in young people was on the agenda.

EU Youth Strategy

The European Youth Forum warmly welcomes the EU Youth Strategy report, which stresses the essential role that youth organisations will play during the negotiation of the next EU Youth Strategy. The report also highlights the continuing importance of the Structured Dialogue as a tool for youth participation and policy making. It was good to see the need for investment in young people and youth policies was affirmed, as well as more coherence between the various EU strategies and programmes.

The Youth Forum also welcomes the report’s acknowledgement that better validation of skills gained through informal and non-formal learning is necessary, as well as the significant role that youth organisations play in the development of young people’s skills and personal development. The report also recognises that young people’s voluntary activities should be supported and better acknowledged.

Resolution on European Voluntary Service

Volunteering was also on the agenda elsewhere in the plenary, with a Resolution on European Voluntary Service and the promotion of volunteering in Europe adopted yesterday. Volunteering has been a top topic in political discussions recently and the Youth Forum welcomes the leading role that the European Parliament wants to take on this important topic for all Europeans. The Youth Forum and its member organisations contributed to this resolution and we are glad to see that the views of youth organisations and volunteer organisations are well reflected in the resolution.

Investing in Youth

Earlier in the week, investing in young people was the buzzword in Strasbourg, with two resolutions adopted on funding: on Wednesday the European Parliament voted on a Resolution providing a strong political response to the Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF) revision package, proposed by the Commission on 14 September. This Resolution reaffirms the need to invest more in young people and to ensure at least the same level of

appropriations annually as in 2014 and 2015. We are glad to see that the advocacy efforts of the European Youth Forum have been heard by the European Parliament and fully integrated in this important resolution. We call on the Council to take on board the indications of the European Parliament.

On the same day the Parliament voted on a resolution setting the Parliament’s position for talks with the Council for the negotiations on 2017 EU Budget. The Parliament emphasises the need to increase the level of investment to fight youth unemployment and to further strengthen the Youth Employment Initiative in 2017. The Youth Forum has been actively advocating for strengthening the Youth Employment Initiative and is glad the Parliament shares our views.

The Youth Forum would like to thank its allies in the European Parliament - the rapporteurs and shadow rapporteurs, as well as the Youth Intergroup - who contributed to these strong steps forward for youth this week and we look forward to our continued work with them.

More info on the EU Youth Strategy report: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P8-TA-2016-0426+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN

More info on the volunteering resolution: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/plenary/en/motion-details.html?reference=RC-B8-1126-2016

More info on MFF and 2017 budget: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/budg/home.html