European leaders should meet young people’s youth employment expectations

Brussels, 26 June 2013 /// The European Youth Forum (YFJ) believes that the European Council that takes place tomorrow and on 28June provides the opportunity for European leaders to present an overall strategy to tackle youth unemployment, rather than only suggesting interim measures. The European Council announced its intention to fight the youth employment battle in the past, but now is the time to act.

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Young people in Europe are increasingly looking to the EU for leadership in the fight against growing unemployment and the associated increased risks of poverty and social exclusion.

Peter Matjašič, President of the European Youth Forum stated, "European leaders have to take effective action now. They cannot use young people to experiment new measures; these new measures must be part of an overall strategy; promoting quality jobs for young people and that takes into account opinions from young people and youth organisations. In addition to measures such as the Youth Guarantee scheme, we stress that youth unemployment requires more real investment!”

The European Youth Forum takes this opportunity to remind the European Council that effective coordination and significant European, national and regional investment is required in order to tackle the roots of youth unemployment, rather than seeking to address it through short-term, isolated measures. So far, sums put forward by the European Council and discussed by member states are not up to the challenge, while national policy responses to youth unemployment, based on European and international recommendations, still need to be developed, in active coordination with youth organisations, to create a real future for Europe’s youth.

To maintain its credibility, the European Council will need to provide immediate answers on the current challenges young people face, including the following:

• An efficient Youth Guarantee: the European Council should take steps for the implementation of the announced youth guarantee, with sufficient funding to ensure its effectiveness.
• Fighting in-work precariousness: a framework directive on contractual arrangements is needed to prevent the almost one hundred contractual arrangements existing in Europe to hide in-work precariousness. Systems of minimum wages need to be established, set respecting the national practices of collective bargaining, and preventing discrimination between younger and older workers.
• Quality internships and apprenticeships: to make sure that internships and apprenticeships constitute real learning opportunities and smoother ways to access the labor market, the European Council should commit to adopt a binding European Quality Charter for Internships and Apprenticeships.
• Supporting sustainable entrepreneurship: the way out of the crisis lies in creating new growth, following a socially and environmentally more sustainable development model. Entrepreneurship and the green economy thus have a huge importance for youth autonomy, either as businesses established by young people or as a source of employment for young people.
• Enabling young people to develop the right set of skills: access to free high standard education should be granted to all young people, while the specific role of youth work in developing young people's skill-sets and supporting their job-readiness shall be recognized and supported – as stated clearly in the Dublin Declaration adopted on 21 June and presented by the Youth Forum in its research on Non Formal Education and Employability.

The current lack of investment in the younger generations is costly. It is crucial that the European Council and the EU reverse the trend and invest in its youth today, to ensure long-term growth in the future.

(ENDS)