The European Parliament adopted by 502 votes to 112, with 22 abstentions, a resolution on Youth Employment.
The resolution was tabled by the EPP, S&D, ALDE and Greens/EFA groups.
Youth Guarantee - Youth employment: Parliament called for an efficient monitoring of the implementation of the Youth Guarantee and called on the Commission to propose a European legal framework, introducing minimum standards for the implementation of the youth guarantees, including the quality of apprenticeships, decent wages for young people and access to employment services, and also covering young people aged between 25 and 30, where the existing recommendations on youth guarantees are not respected by Member States. It also called for the reduction of youth unemployment to be made a specific objective under the European Semester. It also called for measures to combat youth unemployment to be included in the CSRs and the national reform programmes (NRPs). The Commission is called upon to closely monitor and review the introduction of such measures with the comprehensive involvement of Parliament.
In addition, the Commission is called upon to accelerate the establishment of the Youth Employment Initiative and the Member States are encouraged to consider extending the Youth Guarantee to young people under 30 years of age.
Whilst recalling the fundamental role of the Structural Funds, Parliament stressed that the Youth Employment Initiative should not prevent Member States from using other EU programmes, e.g. under the European Social Fund or ERASMUS +, to finance broader projects related to youth, especially on young entrepreneurship, poverty and social inclusion.
Vocational education and training: Parliament recalled that the EUR 6 billion allocated to the YEI are not sufficient to combat youth unemployment in a lasting manner. It called on the Commission and the Member States to make the Youth Guarantee a priority and to increase its budget allocation for the overall period 2014-2020 when deciding on the compulsory post-electoral revision of the MFF 2014-2020, which is due to take place at the end of 2016 at the very latest.
It urged Member States to implement preventive action against early dropout from school or from training or apprenticeship schemes in order to significantly increase young persons’ employability and life opportunities.
Further measures are also laid down with a view to:
- further improving the transparency and recognition of qualifications within the Union;
- focusing on sectors with high growth and job creation potential;
- supporting new types of economy, especially social entrepreneurship, co-working, crowdsourcing;
- fostering growth-promoting policies in key sectors such as the digital market, the telecom market and a common energy community;
- reforming their labour market agencies;
- recognising competences acquired through non-formal education;
- removing existing cross-border barriers to vocational training, orientation and apprenticeships, traineeships and internships, and to better match the supply and demand of work-based training opportunities for young people, thereby improving mobility and employability.
New environment for jobs: Members underlined the need for Europe to create an SME-friendly environment, which includes providing the best financial and legal conditions for start-up businesses, as overall SMEs accounted for 66.5% of all European jobs in 2012. They reiterated the need to ensure wide and easy training and access to Internet and online information and to digital skills.
Parliament urged Member States to associate youth employment policies with quality and sustainable working contracts in order to tackle increasing structural precariousness and underemployment.
Convinced that young entrepreneurs and growth-orientated SMEs are the necessary enablers of innovation and job creation, Parliament urged the Commission and the Member States to take a rights-based approach to youth and employment. In this respect, Parliament called on the Member States and on the Commission to support and promote mobility mechanisms, in particular EURES, which facilitate job seeking in other Member States.
The Commission is also called upon to take a leading role with an initiative for the reindustrialisation of Europe. Member States are called upon to: (i) eliminate unnecessary administrative burdens and bureaucracy for the self-employed, micro-enterprises and SMEs; (ii) ensure the free movement of all citizens and workers in order to allow the development of a genuine Union labour market; (iii) pay particular attention to high youth unemployment rates among disadvantaged groups, giving priority to accession and integration into the labour market. Member States must meet the specific needs of young people with disabilities.
Lastly, Parliament stressed the importance of focussing on stimulating entrepreneurship, particularly amongst younger people and graduates, promoting graduate internship and placements in small businesses and micro-enterprises.