Youth employment

The European Commission today proposed making additional funds available for the pre-financing of the European Youth Guarantee Scheme (1) through reallocation under the European Social Fund. Welcoming the proposal, Green employment and youth spokesperson Terry Reintke said:

"This proposal will give a welcome boost to the Youth Guarantee Scheme and hopefully provide the impetus for EU governments to stop stalling on the implementation of the scheme. Simplifying the financing for the scheme will remove the excuses of those EU governments that have not been moving forward.

"With crisis-hit EU member states those most affected by rocketing youth unemployment, EU support is essential. The over 7 million young people in the EU currently not in employment, education or training need to be given some kind of perspective and the youth guarantee does just that. The European Commission has made it even easier for the EU governments to implement and they need to stop dragging their feet."

(1) The Youth Guarantee Scheme, which entered into force in 2014, aims to ensure that all young people under the age of 25 in Europe are entitled to receive a good-quality offer of employment, education, apprenticeship or traineeship within a period of four months after becoming unemployed or leaving formal education. It includes a pre-financing component from EU funds, which the Commission has today proposed to increase, with a view to facilitating the take-up by EU governments.