Jongeren komen zelf met oplossingen voor sociale uitsluiting (en)

On 9-12 September Vilnius hosted an EU Youth conference, closing with the adoption of the 21st joint conclusion. Over 250 youth representatives from the EU, as well as EU directorates general for youth affairs, voiced their tangible proposals to improve the social inclusion of youth, particularly those not in education, employment, or training (NEETs) into the labour market, education system and society.

Conclusions adopted include proposals for the better adjustment of the education system to the needs of youth and the labour market, to provide information and help youth during changes in life more effectively, to facilitate their transition from education to work, to adjust the labour market to young persons, to maintain youth autonomy, to strengthen the role of youth organisations, and to develop and enhance intersectoral cooperation.

The youth representatives and policy makers suggest that EU institutions adopt a mandatory system to ensure that all work placements within the European Union are of quality standard and generate sufficient wage. Member States should offer tax deductions or other incentives to ensure that employers are inclined to offer such placements.

EU Member States should, for the purposes of youth, guarantee initiative, and establish or enhance national coordinating organisations through the involvement of youth sector representatives, as well as other social partners.

The conference also concluded that EU Member States should develop and implement national policy to help young persons, including youth in the NEET group, students, employed, etc. with the right to affordable and adequate housing, thereby providing an environment for their independent life.

Steponas Kulbauskas, senior adviser to the Family and Communities Department of the Ministry of Social Security and Labour, was pleased to see that young people had a perfect understanding of the importance of youth social exclusion issues, and that they came up with specific solutions. “Today many quality ideas were presented. On our part we promise to hear, consider and hopefully implement them,” he said.

According to Peter Matjašič, President of the European Youth Forum, “The message is clear: young persons need a more equitable and fair labour market, and more permanent and stable jobs. The social inclusion of young persons is inextricable from the right to work with dignity and respect; young persons must be treated equally in the labour market. Both the EU and Member States must make more effort to prevent any vulnerability at work and ensure quality employment. We must act now! It is high time to regulate issues of employment relations, and eliminate any kind of discrimination in the labour market whatsoever, including based on age.”

According to Loreta Senkutė, President of the Lithuanian Youth Council, “Over two days, members of the conference succeeded in finding an agreement regarding key measures to be implemented in the field of social inclusion. What matters most is to see that things underlined at the conference are not forgotten, and that steps are taken to develop efficient monitoring mechanisms to turn the adopted conclusions into political realities throughout Europe.”

These conclusions were shaped during the discussions of conference members across seven working groups. Each working group shaped three specific conclusions, advocating innovations.

The EU Youth conference, hosted yearly in each Presidency country, stresses the key role of EU youth structural dialogue. This year the conference focused on the key priority of the Lithuanian Presidency i in the field of youth policy, i.e. the social inclusion of youth, with particular emphasis on the inclusion of young persons not in education, employment, or training (NEETs).

The joint conclusions adopted today will contribute to the process of drafting Council conclusions in the youth working group of the EU Council; these conclusions target the social inclusion of young persons not in education, employment, or training. The same Council conclusions are expected for adoption by Ministers of the EU Member States for youth policy in November 2013. Furthermore, the conclusions will contribute to drafting the Council resolution regarding structural dialogue with youth on the topic of social inclusion; this resolution will be adopted during the Greek Presidency.