Europese lidstaten moeten meer aandacht besteden aan jeugd- en langdurige werkloosheid (en)

The Lithuanian Presidency of the EU Council parliamentary dimension’s event - the meeting of the Chairpersons of the Committees on Social Affairs and Labour (hereinafter - ‘Meeting’), Employment Incentives to Implement the Europe 2020 Strategy, concluded with the adoption of Conclusions.

The document focuses on youth unemployment issues. It stresses that youth unemployment is currently 23.5%, i.e. twice that of adults. In addition, youth unemployment fluctuates greatly across Member States. For example, in September 2013 7.7% of German youth were unemployed, but in countries that suffered most from the crisis, Greece and Spain, the rate was almost 60%.

The Meeting's participants welcome the European Council’s decision to allocate EUR 6 bn for the implementation of the 2014-2020 Youth Employment initiative, but note that according to ILO data, tackling unemployment in eurozone countries alone would require EUR 21 bn.

The document urges EU Member States to prepare national plans for the implementation of the Youth Guarantees initiative. Furthermore, the implementation of this initiative should be monitored and assessed through national reform programmes within the context of a European Semester, and the initiative should be integrated into an active labour market policy.

The section on the implementation of EU guidelines for employment states that dealing with social exclusion should be an integral part of employment and social policy, and that EU Member States should focus on creating employment opportunities for long-term unemployed. The Conclusions agree with the European Commission's communication of 2 October 2013 on strengthening the social dimension of the economic and monetary union, and propose improving relations between the EU’s economy and financial policy and its social and employment policy.

The document also points out that the EU's population is aging and decreasing, so according to the Commission, in order to support the current number of employed people, 60 million additional immigrants may be required by 2060. Participants urged the EC to prepare a study about the effect of such immigration levels on Europe. Attention is also drawn to brain-drain - which is a problem in many new Member States. This challenge should be dealt with at the national and European levels.

The Meeting’s Conclusions are available here.