European Commission

The European Commission has proposed operational rules to implement the Youth Employment Initiative to combat youth unemployment. The Youth Employment Initiative was proposed by the 7-8 February 2013 European Council with a budget of €6 billion for the period 2014-20.

László Andor, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, said: “Following the strong political signal given by the European Council to support the Youth Guarantee and other measures to tackle the record levels of youth unemployment, the Commission has delivered the concrete proposal to allow Member States to start using the resources immediately once the new 2014-20 budget framework comes into force.”

The Youth Employment Initiative would particularly support young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs) in the Union’s regions with a youth unemployment rate in 2012 at above 25%. It would focus on integrating NEETs into the labour market.

The money under the Youth Employment Initiative would therefore be used to reinforce and accelerate measures outlined in the December 2012 Youth Employment Package. In particular, the funds would be available for Member States to finance measures to implement in the eligible regions the Youth Guarantee Recommendation agreed by the EU’s Council of Employment and Social Affairs Ministers on 28 February (see MEMO/13/152). Under the Youth Guarantee, Member States should put in place measures to ensure that young people up to age 25 receive a good quality offer of employment, continued education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship within four months of leaving school or becoming unemployed.

The Youth Employment Initiative would be complementary to other projects undertaken at national level, including those with ESF support, with a view to setting up or implementing the youth guarantee schemes, such as reforming the relevant institutions and services.

Of the funding, €3 billion would come from a dedicated Youth Employment budget line complemented by at least €3 billion more from the European Social Fund. Given Member States current budgetary difficulties due to the economic crisis, only the European Social Fund contribution would require Member States to top up with their own financial contribution.

Background

Young people have been particularly badly affected by the economic crisis. In January 2013, the youth unemployment rate in the EU was more than twice as high as the adult rate, at 23.6 %. There are 7.5 million young Europeans (aged 15-24) not in employment, education or training (NEETs) in the EU. Youth unemployment is particularly acute in certain regions. This is not only a problem for the individuals concerned but also poses a serious threat to social cohesion in the EU and risks having a long-term negative impact on Europe’s economic potential and competitiveness.

To tackle the unacceptably high levels of youth unemployment, the Commission adopted the Youth Employment Package on 5 December 2012. It includes a proposal for a Council Recommendation on Establishing a Youth Guarantee, launches a second-stage social partner consultation on a Quality Framework on Traineeships, announces a European Alliance for Apprenticeships and outlines ways to reduce obstacles to mobility for young people.

Creating jobs for young people is a key objective of cohesion policy supported by both the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund. The European Council of 7-8 February 2013 has decided to go a step further in the fight against youth unemployment by proposing the Youth Employment Initiative.

For more information

Youth Employment Package

Press release: IP/12/1311

Memo: MEMO/12/938

Speech: SPEECH/12/910

Video: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1036&langId=en&furtherVideos=yes

News item on DG Employment website:

http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=89&newsId=1829&furtherNews=yes

Youth Employment Page:  http://ec.europa.eu/social/youthemployment

László Andor’s website: http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/andor/index_en.htm

Follow László Andor on Twitter: https://twitter.com/laszloandoreu

Subscribe to the European Commission’s free e-mail newsletter on employment, social affairs and inclusion: http://ec.europa.eu/social/e-newsletter

European Commission

László ANDOR
European Commissioner responsible for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion

Reference: SPEECH/13/219 Event Date: 13/03/2013

Minister, ladies and gentlemen,

I want to thank Minister von der Leyen for arranging this event and inviting us to Berlin.

I am grateful for her strong support for the public employment services network and for their project ‘Towards an integrated European public employment services bench-learning initiative’.

Tomorrow your assistants will be meeting in Brussels to discuss the details with a view to the Dublin meeting of heads of public employment services in June.

On 28 February, the Council of Employment and Social Ministers reached political agreement on a Council Recommendation on establishing a Youth Guarantee.

The Heads of State and Government decided last month to dedicate €6 billion of EU financial support to the so-called Youth Employment Initiative, the financial arm that will give a boost to implementing the Youth Guarantee in some 16 Member States with critical levels of youth unemployment.

As you know, the Youth Guarantee calls on Member States to ensure that under-25 year-olds receive a quality offer of employment, continued education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship within four months of leaving school or becoming unemployed.

The public employment services are key actors in the implementation of the the Youth Guarantee.

The Council Recommendation states that the starting point for the Youth Guarantee is when a young person registers with an employment service.

And it says that the Member States should set a starting point within the same four-month time-frame for young people not in employment, education or training and who are not registered with an employment service.

The Recommendation also calls for Member States to develop strong partnership-based approaches:

• first, between employers and such labour market players as the employment services to boost opportunities between young people, and
• second, between employment services, education and training institutions, career guidance services and other specialised youth services to help smooth young people’s transition from inactivity or education to work.

Member States are also encouraged to enable employment services, together with other partners supporting young people, to provide personalised guidance and individual action planning, including tailor-made individual support schemes, based on the principle of mutual obligation at an early stage and continued follow-up with a view to preventing young people from dropping out and ensuring their progression towards education and training or employment.

These may be routine tasks for some public employment services, but new for others.

This lays a heavy burden on public employment services. But not all public employment services in Europe are equipped for these tasks or have the resources and expertise needed.

This is where the Commission, and especially you — as members of the heads of public employment services network — can make a difference.

You can help services that perform less well by sharing your knowledge and experience.

Of course, what works well in your country may not work well elsewhere.

But knowing what works in one country, or what the results of a particular practice are, can help others.

First, you could assist other public employment services to implement the Youth Guarantee either individually or as a network.

In the short-term, various support measures could be useful. These could involve:

• preparing a handbook on how public employment services could support the implementation of the Youth Guarantee in line with the Recommendation.
• workshops at EU level to explain your national approach to other services. Such workshops should be able to be held at very short notice. A series would probably be necessary, given the large number of topics. These range from prevention, activation approaches for those harder to place, working with employers, and targeted active labour-market policy measures, to monitoring and evaluation.
• twinning of public employment services with study visits, staff training and possibly, temporary staff exchanges. Some public employment services could group together to share the burden. An example is the Public Employment Service Task Force Greece, in which Germany, Sweden and the UK are helping the Greek service reshape its business model.

Secondly, supporting mobility for youth employment under the Your First EURES Job pilot project. I know some of you are very active here. This could involve the systematic transfer of know-how on such recruitment projects and helping the sending countries to develop structures that improve cooperation.

• exploring the inclusion of traineeships and apprenticeships to boost employment among young people, in line with the June 2012 European Council’s request concerning EURES. Mobility among young workers as apprentices and trainees could also be part of the Youth Guarantee employment offer.
• Other measures could also help in the longer term, such as support for Member States setting up a company-based apprenticeship system and the relevant structures. Perhaps this could be discussed at a follow-up meeting. Your support could help to change attitudes to apprenticeship-type learning by promoting the benefits of apprenticeships and allowing young people and their parents to make an informed choice when taking up quality vocational training or an apprenticeship.

Thirdly, you could help by providing the Commission with support through innovative action in response to youth unemployment. This could involve two possibilities:

• The first is for you to assist the Commission and the EU’s Employment Committee in monitoring implementation of the Youth Guarantee from the public employment service perspective. The Commission currently issues an annual questionnaire to public employment services on their anti-crisis measures. One module of the questionnaire relates to implementation of the Youth Guarantee from the perspective of public employment services. If you agree, we will ask your experts for advice on interpreting the progress and what corrective measures could look like.
• The second is for you and your experts to act as a sounding board for practical questions — for example, on what and when to fund, and on specific aspects of implementation — which the Commission needs to decide on regularly.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I have tried to outline briefly the areas where I see a role for the public employment services in providing support in implementing the Recommendation.

I am sure you also have ideas and suggestions, which we could discuss.

Any support that you can offer as individual public employment services or as a network is much needed and will be very welcome.

As you know, the Commission is preparing a proposal for legislation on setting up a formal structure for the network of public employment services.

This should allow us to use your experience to support the implementation of employment policy, step up cooperation and learning within the network and stimulate innovation on capacity to deliver.

I see this meeting as an illustration of what we can achieve by working with you.

May I suggest that you inform the other heads of public employment services when you meet next in Dublin about this initiative and the support that you offer.

Ideally this should be coordinated within the network.

Thank you for your support. I look forward to hearing your views.

European Commission

European Commission President José-Manuel Barroso and European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion László Andor have welcomed the political agreement reached on the proposed Youth Guarantee Recommendation at the EU’s Council of Employment and Social Affairs Ministers on 28thFebruary. Under the Youth Guarantee Member States should put in place measures to ensure that young people up to age 25 receive a good quality offer of employment, continued education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship within four months of leaving school or becoming unemployed.

Commission President José-Manuel Barroso commented “Too many young Europeans are asking if they will ever find a job or have the same quality of life as their parents. They need answers from us. That is why, for the past two years, the European Commission pushed the urgent need to tackle youth unemployment to the top of Europe’s political agenda. 6 billion euros have been earmarked for the Youth Employment Initiative to help the young unemployed. Now, with the Youth Guarantee, young people have a real chance of a better future. I call on Member States to translate this agreement into concrete action as swiftly as possible.”

Commissioner Andor said “Given the record numbers of young jobless, I am very pleased that the Council has approved the Youth Guarantee proposal so quickly. It is crucially important that Member States urgently put in place measures to make the Youth Guarantee a reality and so to urgently get young people into work. EU funds can help but they also need to invest their own money to avoid higher costs in the future.”

The Recommendation, proposed by the Commission on 5th December 2012 as part of the Youth Employment Package, gives Member States a clear benchmark and precise guidelines for establishing their own Youth Guarantee scheme on the basis of six axes:

• establishing strong partnerships with all stakeholders
• ensuring early intervention and activation to avoid young people becoming or remaining NEETs (not in employment, education or training)
• taking supportive measures that will enable labour market integration
• making full use of EU funding to that end
• assessing and continuously improving the Youth Guarantee and
• implementing the scheme rapidly.

The Commission is ready and willing to make available substantial financial contributions from the European Social Fund and other EU structural funds. At the same time, the Commission confirmed in the 2013 Annual Growth Survey adopted in late 2012 that Youth Guarantee schemes are key measures that should be prioritised within growth-friendly fiscal consolidation. For the Commission, investment in Youth Guarantee schemes is crucial expenditure if the EU wants to preserve its future growth potential.
Establishing schemes similar to the Youth Guarantee have already proven effective in a number of countries, in particular Austria and Finland. In Finland, a review of a youth guarantee-type scheme that operated there showed an acceleration in the drawing up of personalised plans for young people as well as a reduction in unemployment since the scheme’s introduction. Austria also has youth guarantee type measures and at the same time one of the lowest youth unemployment rates in Europe.

Implementing the Youth Guarantee requires Member States to establish strong partnerships with schools and universities, training providers, employment services, social partners, career guidance providers, youth support services and youth organisations to ensure early intervention and action. Member States can make full use of the European Social Fund and other structural funds, and will be required to assess and continuously improve their Youth Guarantee schemes. Furthermore, on 7-8 February 2013 the European Council decided to create a Youth Employment Initiative setting aside €6 billion for the period 2014-2020 to be allocated to regions where youth unemployment exceeds 25%. These funds will be available to implement the Youth Guarantee.

The numbers of unemployed young people on the EU labour market are unacceptable – 5.7 million in the EU in December i.e. 23.4% of the workforce under 25. In in Greece and Spain the figure is over 55%. The figure for young people aged 15-24 not in employment, education or training is 7.5 million. Young people are the most vulnerable in the European labour market, and increasingly run the risk of being marginalised. This has immediate consequences for the people concerned and for our economies, but also medium and long-term implications for society as a whole, with an increased risk of future unemployment, poverty and health problems.

The economic cost of not integrating young people into the labour market is enormous – over €150 billion per year, or 1.2% of EU GDP according to a studyby the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound). Some countries, such as Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia and Poland, are paying 2% or more of their GDP to cover the costs of NEETs. Avoiding these economic costs now and in the future outweighs by far the fiscal costs of the Youth Guarantee.

For more information:
Youth Employment Package
Press release: IP/12/1311
Memo: MEMO/12/938
Speech: SPEECH/12/910
Youth Employment Page: http://ec.europa.eu/social/youthemployment
László Andor’s website: http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/andor/index_en.htm
Follow László Andor on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/LaszloAndorEU
Subscribe to the European Commission’s free e-mail newsletter on employment, social affairs and inclusion: http://ec.europa.eu/social/e-newsletter

The skills mismatch problem is particularly acute for the 7.5 million young Europeans between 15 and 24 who are unemployed or not in any form of education or training (so-called NEETs).

The proposals outlined in our December 2012 Youth Employment Package aim to address this problem by ensuring that jobless young people can boost their chances of finding a job. The Member States are called to establish a Youth Guarantee scheme ensuring that all young people up to the age of 25 receive a quality job offer, continued education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship within four months of leaving formal education or becoming unemployed. I therefore urge Member States to adopt and implement such schemes urgently.