European parliamentarians join forces to find a quicker solution to youth unemployment

Brussels, 5 December 2013 // Youth organisations, national parliaments and Members of the European Parliament have joined forces to campaign for young people in Europe to be given better access to quality jobs.

At a Policy Forum in Brussels today, the European Youth Forum (YFJ) and the Youth Intergroup brought together European and national parliamentarians in order to help create a more efficient approach to resolving Europe’s youth unemployment challenges.

Young people have rights to quality jobs and adequate social protection in Europe. However, recent moves to limit young people’s access to social benefits in some Member States have been discriminatory and risk pushing many young people further into poverty and social exclusion.

During the event, Eider Gardiazabal Rubial MEP, Chair of the European Parliament Youth Intergroup, highlighted her wish for stronger and more regular collaboration between national and European parliaments on the issues affecting young people by proposing to develop a new network of Members of Parliaments who are under the age of 35.

Ms Gardiazabal Rubial said: “We are convinced that by building on the potential, energy and enthusiasm of younger members of national Parliaments and the European Parliament, it will be possible to improve the quality and efficiency of policies dealing with youth unemployment in Europe. By improving our cooperation, we can do our utmost to ensure that Europe is more responsive to young people’s needs.”

A particular focus of the new network will be to increase and improve communication between European and national parliamentary officials and so speed up the implementation of measures promoting youth and particularly youth employment.

Participants at the forum also stressed the need to facilitate young people’s transition from education to employment, as well as to embrace an approach promoting quality employment, vocational education and training, and further education.

Members of national and European Parliaments, together with youth organisations, have highlighted the need to address the issue of misuse and abuse of internships through an ambitious European framework of internships, by securing their educational value and ensuring they are not used as an alternative to creating permanent jobs.

Participants at the forum also called for a rapid and thorough implementation of the Youth Guarantee in EU Member States. This will require both national investment and the full use of the funding foreseen in the European Social Fund and the Youth Employment Initiative.

Giuseppe Porcaro, Secretary General of the YFJ, commented that “the European Institutions are gradually moving forward on youth employment issues – and funding from the European Union will be available as of early 2014”.

However, Mr Porcaro stressed: “It is crucial that the measures put forward in favour of young people’s access to the labour market become a tangible reality. We need to improve the employment situation of young people across Europe. This is now an urgent obligation for Member States.”

Notes to editors:

The European Youth Forum (YFJ) is the platform of youth organisations in Europe. Independent, democratic and youth-led, it represents 99 National Youth Councils and International Youth Organisations from across the continent. The Forum works to empower young people to participate actively in society to improve their own lives, by representing and advocating their needs and interests and those of their organisations towards the European Institutions, the Council of Europe and the United Nations.

The European Parliament Youth intergroup it is a platform of more than 40 MEPs that are exchanging, discussing and cooperating on how to make stronger youth policies in the agenda of the European Parliament and to be also the channel between the EP and the civil society, especially the youth civil society.