The European Council missed the opportunity to meet young people’s expectations on youth unemployment

Brussels, 28 June 2013 // At its meeting held on the 27 and 28 June, the European Council discussed youth employment in an attempt to provide answers to the expectations of young people across Europe. However, European Council proposals are not up to the challenge.

The European Youth Forum considers that the European Council failed to provide a plan aimed at creating growth and new job opportunities for young people. Measures such as excluding the investments in job creation, education, training and research, from deficit targets would have given a stronger message of a Union that invests in growth, in its future, in its youth!

The European Council also missed the opportunity to take a rights-based approach to youth and employment, and to ensure that the quality of work for young people is not compromised. Young people expect more action. They want actions for growth, actions fighting precariousness, such as a framework directive on contractual arrangement, and specific actions for young entrepreneurs, who can create their jobs and those of their peers.

Peter Matjašič, President of the European Youth Forum, stressed that “European leaders had a good opportunity to change the trend and to counter youth unemployment. Despite young people and youth organisations’ demands for having an overall strategy, the European Council doesn’t go beyond the measures already announced of a financially and geographical limited Youth Guarantee, and support to youth mobility. We expected more from them, and we will continue fighting for having more”.

However, the Forum welcomes and supports the push of member states in promoting active labour market measures and working for more effective vocational and education systems to facilitate the transition from school to work. The Youth Forum is also keen to contribute to the institutional processes of establishing the European Alliance for Apprenticeships and defining the European Quality Framework for Traineeships on the basis of the strong quality criteria contained in the European Quality Charter on Internships and Apprenticeships.

The European Council also agreed to frontload the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) budget, committing to fully disburse it in 2014 and 2015 instead of spreading it over the period 2014-20 as originally planned. In the view of the Forum, this front loading is a good signal to start pushing the initiative forward and with needed resources. However its concentration on two years could create uncertainty about the sustainability and efficiency of this instrument. We expect the Council to set up, as soon as possible, a clear mechanism of monitoring and evaluation of such spending and the guarantee for possible further allocation to the YEI after 2015.