Tag: youth unemployment

Greens in the European Parliament abstained from voting on a report aimed at tackling youth unemployment, calling it “weak” and saying that it puts too much of the blame on young people.

The EU’s top education official, Androulla Vassiliou, has called for a revamped Erasmus student exchange programme to place more emphasis on youth employability in the coming years, as the European Commission reveals a record 253,000 students took part in the programme last year.

Eurozone unemployment is at a record high and consumer prices are being driven upward by volatile energy and food prices, data showed on Monday, underlining the fragility of the bloc's economic health.

European leaders agreed on Thursday (27 June) to set aside around 8 billion euros to combat youth unemployment, even as they admitted that the labour market would only sustainably improve once the crisis-hit region returns to growth.

French President François Hollande will travel to Brussels for a European summit today with an appeal for an EU-wide “action plan” on youth unemployment that includes frontloading the bloc’s €6-billion youth employment initiative over the next two years rather than the next seven, the fund’s original time frame.

The new president of BusinessEurope, Emma Mercegaglia, has promised to make the leading European employers’ organisation more ‘constructively outspoken’ and pressure Brussels to swiftly act to restore competitiveness and boost investment.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble warned on Tuesday (28 May) that failure to win the battle against youth unemployment could tear Europe apart, and dropping the continent's welfare model in favour of tougher US standards would spark a revolution.

Stark unemployment figures represent a much broader, depressing reality than just the state of the economy. They also show academic qualifications that no longer hold value, a lack of decent housing, young people being deprived of opportunities to stand on their own two feet - the ways and means towards self-determination, but there are solutions, writes Reinhard Bütikofer.

Five EU member states with successful apprenticeship systems have united to share knowledge with lagging countries, in advance of new European Commission proposals to promote the schemes as a way to address youth unemployment.

Facing mounting social pressures and unemployment, Europeans are experiencing their worst financial distress in a decade and see little immediate hope for improvement, a new study says.

Young people without a job will be guaranteed the offer of employment, training or further education under a new decision agreed yesterday (28 February) by EU national ministers.

The European Union spends more on cows than young people, and that needs to change if Europe is to address its youth unemployment problem and create future opportunities for young people, says Peter Matjašič.

The European Commission has urged EU countries to ensure that all young people up to age 25 receive a quality job offer, education or internship within four months of leaving formal education or becoming unemployed.

Germany's Baden-Württemberg state has taken over the presidency of the ‘four motors’ of Europe, a network of advanced regions in France, Germany, Italy and Spain demanding a bigger slice of EU regional funding to support excellence. EurActiv France reports.

Almost nine million people in the European Union were considered “underemployed” in 2011, according to new Eurostat figures. These numbers add to the growing ranks of nearly 25 million unemployed in the EU, highlighting a ticking social time-bomb.

Workplace inequalities have increased significantly across Europe as a result of the global economic crisis – harshly affecting temporary and low-skilled workers, women and young people – and will continue to do so as more and more countries introduce austerity measures and labour market reforms, says Daniel Vaughan-Whitehead of the International Labour Organization.

EU leaders agreed yesterday (30 January) a treaty on tighter fiscal rules to preserve the eurozone from new crises. But the Czech Republic said it would not sign it for now due to ratification difficulties, while French President Nicolas Sarkozy said his country is unlikely to ratify before the 6 May presidential election.

Young people should be offered a good job within four months after leaving school, EU leaders will say at an informal summit today (30 January), according to a draft statement obtained by EurActiv. The measure was criticised as empty rhetoric by European socialists.

As the economic crisis lengthens and many industrial sectors restructure, private employment agencies are uniquely well positioned to help young people and redundant workers to find jobs in the new economy, argue Elmar Wiederin and Dennis Pennel.

Asking for labour market reform to spur competitiveness, BusinessEurope has identified a number of ready-to-use actions that could bring Europe back to work and lead the 27-country bloc closer to its strategic goal of raising the employment rate from 68 to 75%.

Most business leaders believe that Europe's young people lack the so-called 'soft skills' that are considered essential by many employers. Closer links between business and schools are seen as a way to bridge this skills gap.

EU Employment Commissioner László Andor has admitted that the EU is experiencing a "jobless recovery", amid warnings from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) that the situation might not improve this year.

Amid the economic crisis, the European Parliament yesterday (6 July) adopted a resolution calling for a 'European Youth Guarantee' to make sure that unemployed young people do not remain without jobless for over four months.