28-02-2013

S&D Euro MPs today welcomed the EU council political agreement on a youth guarantee to be implemented in the member states.

The youth guarantee will ensure that all young people under the age of 25 years receive a good-quality offer of employment, continued education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship within a period of four months of becoming unemployed or leaving formal education ».

Said S&D Group leader Hannes Swoboda: I am very pleased of the adoption of a youth guarantee. This is a very positive step for which the socialists and democrats have been campaigning for more than a year. The youth guarantee will offer a fresh start for millions of young people ».

Said S&D spokesperson for Employment and social affairs Alejandro Cercas:

« This is a great victory for the Social Europe, as well as for our socialist family, since it follows the path we started a year and a half ago.

« There is no gain saying that this is a step further, but we can’t stop here because we are facing a structural problem. The next step should be to extend extend the guarantee to all young EU citizens and legal residents up to the age of 25 years, and recent graduates under 30 » as requested by a European Parliament.

« We will closely follow the implementation in all Member States, since the recommendation needs to be transformed into actions that will change the lives of millions of young Europeans. »

Said S&D Euro MP and Chair of the Employment and social Affairs committee Pervenche Berès:

« I’m very pleased that we now have this first tool focused on young people. This is a first step to respond not just to youth unemployment – affecting 23.4%, almost a quarter of young people. This is also a key social element of the strategy to exit the crisis.

« The European Parliament will fight to ensure that the European Social Fund can finance this guarantee, without taking money from other programmes which promote solidarity in Europe. We want to ensure that 25% of the cohesion policy funding will be earmarked for the European Social Fund. »

The EU heads of state and government have decide to allocate €6 bn of EU funds (€3 bn will be from the ESF, €3 bn from a new budget line).The funds will enable countries worst hit by the crisis to finance a youth guarantee.