Preparatory Action on the Youth Guarantee : first findings report

The effects of the economic crisis on employment have been particularly marked for European youth. In 2013, the rate of youth unemployment stood at 23.3% across the EU- 28 (the latest Eurostat figure of June 2014 indicates to a youth unemployment rate of 22%). The rate is nearly eight percentage points higher than the rate in 2007, before the onset of the crisis (15.7%). At present 5.2 million people in Europe under the age of 25 are unemployed (May 2014) and a total of 7.5 million are not in employment, education or training. This represents a huge untapped resource that Europe cannot afford to lose and carries serious implications for future growth and social cohesion. It has been recognised that immediate action is needed to mitigate the effect of the youth unemployment crisis on individuals and on long-term employment prospects for future generations. In December 2012, the Commission put forward a Youth Employment Package to assist and guide Member States in combatting youth unemployment. Based on the Commission's proposal, the Council adopted a Recommendation on the Youth Guarantee in April 2013. Member States thereby committed to ensuring 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. In the 2012 EU budget, the European Parliament asked the Commission to implement a preparatory action to support the setting-up of pilot Youth Guarantee (YG) activities in Member States. The call for proposals4 was launched in 2012 and 18 Pilot Projects were launched. These projects are currently being implement in seven countries: Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom. The Pilots were launched during the August-December 2013 period and they run for 12 months. Ultimately the experience gained from the Pilots is expected to provide Member States with practical recommendations for implementing national Youth Guarantee (YG) schemes and programming related actions under the European Social Fund and Youth Employment Initiative.