EP Mulling Ways to Tackle Youth Unemployment Issue

The European Parliament will make sure that young people will not remain unemployed for more than four months. Photo by BGNES

The European Parliament has adopted the resolution “European Youth Guarantee”, which will make sure that young people do not remain unemployed for more than four months.

The resolution has been drafted by Emilie Turunen, which is the Parliament's youngest member. She stated that more than 5,5 million people under 25 were unemployed in December 2009, which equals 21,4% of all young Europeans.

"This is twice as high as the overall unemployment rate. And even worse: the rate is expected to rise even further. This makes youth unemployment one of Europe's most pressing problems," said Turunen.

The idea for the resolution has come from the fact that young people experience difficulties when finding good and stable jobs, despite them being the most qualified.

The idea of “European Youth Guarantee” is to give every young person in the EU, who has been unemployed for more than four months, the right to a job, apprenticeship, or a job combined with training.

“The EP resolution is a very important step. However, there is much more that EU could do to tackle the urgent issue of youth unemployment,” said Tine Radinja, President of European Youth Forum.

The EP has also been asked to set up a European Quality Charter on traineeships, in order to avoi exploitation of young people.

"Traineeships are part of education and must not replace real jobs," insisted Turunen, stressing that it was high time for the Commission to act.

“The practice of recruiting interns instead of employees, without labour law protection and often with no or very limited financial compensation, limits young people’s chances of being fully integrated into society,“ said Giuseppe Porcaro, Secretary-General of the European Youth Forum.

He added that in times of crisis, the lack of legal requirements or clear quality guidelines may lead to exploitation and precariousness that is undermining the main goal of the internships, which is to gain a practical experience.

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