European Youth Forum welcomes European Parliament resolution pushing for a rights-based approach to youth employment

Brussels, 12 June 2013 // Today the European Youth Forum welcomes the adoption of the Resolution on Youth Employment by the European Parliament during June’s plenary session and believes it represents a positive step toward tackling youth unemployment in Europe.

The Resolution urges the European Commission and the EU’s member states to take a rights-based approach to youth and employment and shares the European Youth Forum’s view that the quality of work for young people must not be compromised and the standards related to quality jobs must be a core element. The European Youth Forum fully supports the call for investment in youth employment in the national social investment strategies, and calls on the Commission to exclude from deficit targets the investments in job creation, education, training and research.

The European Youth Forum also shares the concerns expressed by the European Parliament regarding the effective implementation of the Youth Employment Initiative and the need for a review of its financial allocation within the Multiannual Financial Framework. This is why the European Youth Forum calls on the European Council to supplement the initial €6 billion, with additional national sources of funding and fully supports the extension of the target beneficiaries to young people up 30 years, as proposed by the European Parliament.

"If we don’t take effective action now we will bankrupt Europe’s future. Implementing tailor made employment schemes for young people, and investing in youth work and youth organisations in order to reach out to marginalised young people may not be cheap, but youth unemployment is much more costly. The youth guarantee is not therefore a quick fix solution, nor is it a re-packaging of existing measures already provided for young people" stated Peter Matjašič, President of the European Youth Forum.

The European Youth Forum regrets however, that European Parliament had not called for progress on the development of a European Quality Framework for Traineeships and urges the European Council to fully support such a process.

(ENDS)