# EUR-Lex - 52012PC0729 - EN

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# 52012PC0729

**Proposal for a COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION On Establishing a Youth Guarantee /* COM/2012/0729 final - 2012/0351 (NLE) */**

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EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

1.           CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL

High and increasing youth
unemployment has dramatic consequences for our economies, our societies and
young people themselves.

The youth unemployment rate
across the EU has reached a high level of 22.7% (third quarter 2012), twice as
high as the adult rate[1],
and prospects do not show any reversing trend. Around 5.5 million young people
are unemployed and more than 7.5 million young people under 25 are currently
not in employment, education or training (NEETs).

But beyond the immediate
effects of the crisis, even at lower rates, youth unemployment and inactivity
are expensive and damaging to society. They are expensive today in terms of
benefits being paid out and in terms of foregone earnings and taxes, but they
are also expensive in the future as they lead to a number of ‘scarring’
effects, with long-lasting negative impacts on future income levels, future
risks of unemployment, health status, well-being and pension reserves. Europe cannot afford to waste its talent and its future.

The need to take action and
support young people in their transition from school into employment had
already been identified prior to the crisis. In 2005, the Council agreed, in
the context of the Employment policy guidelines (2005-2008), that policies
should ensure that ‘every unemployed person is offered a new start before
reaching 6 months of unemployment in the case of young people’. In 2008, the
Council reduced the time period to ‘no more than 4 months’ for young people
having left school.

As by 2010, implementation
of such a measure across the EU had not yet taken place, both the European
Parliament (EP) and the European Youth Forum were strongly advocating for Youth
Guarantees to be set up at EU level.

In the framework of the
Europe 2020 Strategy and its ‘Youth on the Move’ flagship initiative the
Commission called in particular upon Member States to ensure that all
young people are in a job, further education or activation measures within four
months of leaving school and to provide this as a ‘Youth Guarantee’.

The years 2011 and 2012 have
seen repeated calls for this, in particular from the European Council, the
European Parliament and the European Youth Forum, but without much success on
the ground.

In the Employment Package of
April 2012, the Commission announced that it would propose a Council
recommendation on Youth Guarantees by the end of the year.

On 29 June 2012, the
European Council urged Member States to step up efforts to increase youth
employment, with ‘the objective that within a few months of leaving school,
young people receive a good quality offer of employment, continued education,
apprenticeship or a traineeship’. It further concluded that these measures can
be supported by the European Social Fund (ESF) and that Member States should
use the possibilities of financing temporary recruitment subsidies from the
Fund.

In the 2013 Annual Growth
Survey[2],
the Commission stressed that Member States should secure school-to-work
transitions for young people and develop and implement Youth Guarantee schemes
whereby every young person under 25 receives an offer of employment, continued
education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship within four months of leaving
formal education or becoming unemployed. Such schemes can be co-financed by the
European Social Fund.

The Commission is proposing
a proposal for a Council Recommendation to ensure that young people receive a
quality offer of employment, further education or training within four months
of becoming unemployed or leaving formal education. This proposal also sets out
how a Youth Guarantee scheme should be set up. The proposal lists guidelines on
the basis of six axes - establishing strong partnerships with all stakeholders,
ensuring early intervention and activation to avoid young people becoming
NEETs, taking supportive measures that will enable labour integration, making
full use of EU funding to that end, assessing and continuously improving the
Youth Guarantee schemes, and implementing the schemes rapidly. The proposal also
outlines how the Commission will support Member States’ action: the EU funding
framework, the exchange of good practices among Member States, monitoring of
Member States’ actions within the European Semester exercise and supporting
awareness raising activities.

The proposal is accompanied
by a Staff Working Document (SWD), which goes into more details about what
constitutes a Youth Guarantee, addresses questions about costs and benefits of
such schemes, and describes one by one the ingredients necessary to make the Youth
Guarantee a success. Furthermore, in an annex, the SWD presents policies
supporting youth employment already in place in the 27 Member States and Croatia, reflecting the various starting points of these countries towards setting
up fully-fledged Youth Guarantee schemes.

2.           RESULTS OF CONSULTATIONS
WITH THE INTERESTED PARTIES AND IMPACT ASSESSMENTS

The Danish Presidency
organised a workshop on ways to fulfil a Youth Guarantee in the framework of
the Informal Meeting of Employment and Social Affairs Ministers held in Horsens on 24-25 April 2012. At this meeting, it was underlined that education and training
policies should join up with employment policies, that efforts should be
concentrated on problematic groups, namely those lacking qualifications/educational
degrees and that approaches should be tailored to the national context and to
the specific individual concerns. Finally, it was stressed that public
authorities need to support young people, in particular those most vulnerable,
but also that young people should engage themselves in the process and accept
duties and responsibilities. The European Social Fund was referred to as a
potential source of finance, especially in light of the need to implement
austerity/fiscal consolidation measures.

As part of the yearly
questionnaire sent to the Public Employment Services (PES) Network on their
adjustment capacity to the crisis, the 2012 edition, launched in January,
included a module on actions taken to address youth unemployment. Their replies
were considered when drafting the SWD supporting the present proposal.

In June 2012, in the context
of the meeting of the Heads of PES (HoPES) under the Danish Presidency, members
of this network were asked to report on developments since January 2012
specifically targeting youth.

As a follow-up to the
Employment Package, the prospect of an initiative on a Youth Guarantee was
discussed with social partners on 19-20 June 2012.

At the ‘Jobs for Europe’
conference[3], held on 6-7 September 2012 in Brussels and attended by all
relevant stakeholders, including the social partners and youth organisations, a
broad majority of speakers expressed their support for establishing a Youth
Guarantee throughout the EU, recognising that young people need to be given the
right start in life, particularly in times as difficult as these.

Representatives of the
European Youth Forum and of cross-sectoral social partner organisations were
met in September 2012.

The Youth Guarantee
initiative was discussed once more with Social Partners at the Social Dialogue
Committee on 23 October 2012.

3.           LEGAL ELEMENTS OF THE
PROPOSAL

Legal Basis: For a proposal on the Youth Guarantee with Employment policies
(Title IX TFEU) as centre de gravité, Article 292 TFEU constitutes an appropriate legal basis for the
adoption of a recommendation. The competence of the Union regarding employment
policies is defined by Title IX TFEU, which does not provide for a specific
legal basis for the adoption of a recommendation. In particular, Article 149
TFEU only envisages "incentive measures designed to encourage cooperation
between Member States and to support their action in the field of employment
through initiatives aimed at developing exchanges of information and best
practices", which are not the subject matter of the present Recommendation.

Subsidiarity and
proportionality: The Commission, along with all
Member States, is very concerned about the current labour market situation for
young people and its persistent deterioration. The dramatic levels of youth
unemployment affect the whole of Europe: their costs are high now and in the
future. The savings achieved through the Youth Guarantee go beyond the pure
social protection expenditure savings achieved. Avoiding
unemployment and the deterioration of skills would lead to longer-term benefits
for young people and for the economy through lower unemployment over the course
of the lifecycle, higher incomes (and therefore also higher tax incomes and
social security contributions) and through fewer social and health problems[4].

Following the lack of
implementation of a number of political calls from both the Council and the
European Parliament to set up Youth Guarantee schemes, it is now necessary to
issue this recommendation to Member States. Indeed, so far only a limited
number of Member States have taken measures towards implementing a comprehensive
Youth Guarantee scheme.

Offering guidelines at EU
level on tools that contribute towards an effective Youth Guarantee scheme will
enable Member States to make best use of Cohesion Funds, and in particular of
the European Social Fund, in order to address youth unemployment and
inactivity.

The proposal recognises that
different situations in individual Member States (or at regional or local
level) could lead to differences in how the scheme will be set up and further
implemented.

4.           BUDGETARY IMPLICATION

Not relevant

5.           OPTIONAL ELEMENTS

Not relevant

2012/0351 (NLE)

Proposal for a

COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION

On Establishing a Youth Guarantee

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the
Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 292 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the
European Commission,

Whereas:

(1)       Investing now in the human
capital of young Europeans will deliver long-term benefits and contribute to
sustainable and inclusive economic growth. Europe will be able to reap the full
benefits of an active, innovative and skilled workforce while avoiding the very
high costs of having young people neither in employment, education or training
(‘NEETs’), currently put at 1.2 %
of GDP[5].

(2)       Young people have been hit
particularly hard during the crisis. They are vulnerable because of the
transitionary life periods they are going through, their lack of professional
experience, their sometimes inadequate education or training, their often
limited social protection coverage, restricted access to financial resources,
and precarious work conditions. Young women are more likely to be affected by
low pay and precarious employment, while young parents, primarily young
mothers, lack adequate work-life balance measures. Furthermore, some young
people are at a particular disadvantage or at risk of discrimination.
Appropriate supportive measures are therefore required.

(3)       There are 7.5 million
NEETs across Europe, representing 12.9 % of young Europeans (15-24). Many
have not more than a lower secondary education level, are early leavers from
education and training, and are often migrants or from a disadvantaged
background. The term ‘NEETs’ covers various sub-groups of young people with
diverse needs.

(4)       30.1 % of unemployed
people under 25 have been unemployed for more than twelve months. Furthermore,
an increasing number of young people do not actively seek employment, which may
leave them without structural support in terms of getting back into the labour
market. Research shows that youth unemployment can result in permanent scars,
such as an increased risk of future unemployment, reduced levels of future
earnings, loss of human capital, intergenerational transmission of poverty or
less motivation to found a family, contributing to negative demographic trends.

(5)       The term ‘Youth Guarantee’
refers here to the fact that young people 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.

(6)       A Youth Guarantee
contributes to three of the Europe 2020 strategy targets, namely that 75 %
of the age range 20-64 should be employed, that early school-leaving rates
should be below 10 %, and that at least 20 million people should be lifted
out of poverty and social exclusion.

(7)       The guidelines for the
employment policies of the Member States[6],
in particular guidelines 7 and 8, call on Member States to promote the
integration of young people in the labour market and to help them, and in
particular NEETs, in cooperation with the social partners, to find initial
employment, job experience, or further education and training opportunities,
including apprenticeships, and to intervene rapidly when young people become
unemployed.

(8)       As early as 2005, the
Council agreed, in the context of the Employment policy guidelines[7] (2005-2008), that ‘every
unemployed person [be] offered a new start before reaching six months of
unemployment in the case of young people’. In 2008[8], the Council reduced the time
period to ‘no more than four months’ for young school-leavers.

(9)       In its 2010 resolution ‘Promoting
youth access to the labour market, strengthening trainee, internship and
apprenticeship status’[9],
the European Parliament called on the European Commission, the Member States,
the social partners and other stakeholders to back national labour market,
education and training policies by a Youth Guarantee. This would secure the
right of every young person in the EU to be offered a job, an apprenticeship,
additional training or combined work and training after a maximum of four
months’ unemployment.

(10)     In its 2010 Communication
‘Youth on the Move’, the Commission encouraged Member States to introduce Youth
Guarantees, implementation of which has been so far very limited. This
recommendation reinforces and reiterates the need for Member States to pursue
this goal, whilst also helping with the design, implementation and assessment
of these schemes.

(11)     The June 2011 Council
conclusions on ‘Promoting youth employment to achieve the Europe 2020
objectives’ invited Member States to act quickly by offering further
education, (re)training or activation measures for young people in neither
employment, education nor training, also covering early school-leavers. This
would serve the aim of getting these people back into education, training or
the labour market within the shortest time possible and reducing the risk of
poverty, discrimination and social exclusion.

(12)     The June 2011 Council
Recommendation[10]
on ‘Policies to reduce early school leaving’ focused on the development
of evidence-based, comprehensive and cross-sectoral policies that include
measures to re-engage people who have dropped out of education and to
strengthen the link between education and training systems and the employment
sector.

(13)     In preparing the 2012
budget, the European Parliament backed this approach and asked the Commission
to implement a preparatory action to support the setting-up of Youth Guarantees
in Member States.

(14)     In
its Employment Package ‘Towards a job-rich recovery’[11], the
Commission called for the active mobilisation of Member States, social partners
and other stakeholders to respond to the current EU employment challenges, and
in particular to youth unemployment. The Commission emphasised the major
job-creation potential of the green economy, health and social care, and ICT
sectors, and to this end issued three accompanying action plans for follow-up.
The Commission thereafter also highlighted six promising priority areas for
industrial innovation that contribute to the transition to a low-carbon and
resource-efficient economy[12]. In the
Employment Package the Commission also underlined that fostering
entrepreneurial mind-sets, making start-up support services and microfinance
more available, and establishing schemes for converting unemployment benefits
into start-up grants would play an important role, also for young people.
Furthermore, the Package proposed the use of wage subsidies to boost net new
hiring and the targeted reduction of the tax wedge (mainly employers’ social
security contribution) to help boost employment as well as balanced reforms in employment protection legislation that could
enable young people to have access to quality employment.

(15)     In May 2012, the European
Parliament[13]
urged Member States to take swift and concrete measures at national level to
ensure that young people are in either a decent job, education or (re-)training
within four months of leaving school. Parliament stressed that the Youth
Guarantee scheme would need to be legally enforceable if it were to really
improve the situation of young people neither in employment nor in education or
training and to gradually overcome the problem of youth unemployment in the EU.

(16)     On 29 June 2012 the European Council urged renewed efforts to
increase youth employment, with ‘the objective that within a few months of
leaving school, young people receive a good quality offer of employment,
continued education, apprenticeship or a traineeship’. It further concluded that these measures can
be supported by the European Social Fund and that Member States should use the
possibilities of financing temporary recruitment subsidies from the Fund.

(17)     The Commission
Communication of 20 November 2012 on "Rethinking Education"[14] provides the EU contribution
to this work from the educational perspective. It elaborates on the key issues
for reform and efficiency of education and training systems – to align
delivered skills to the current and future needs of the labour market, to
stimulate open and flexible ways of learning and to promote a collaborative
effort amongst all stakeholders, including funding.

(18)     In the 2013 Annual Growth
Survey (AGS)[15],
the Commission stressed that Member States should secure school-to-work
transitions for young people and develop and implement Youth Guarantee schemes
whereby every young person under 25 receives an offer of employment, continued
education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship within four months of leaving
formal education or becoming unemployed.

(19)     The Youth Guarantee should
be implemented by a scheme consisting of supportive measures, and should be
geared to national, regional and local circumstances. These measures are based
on six axes: building up partnership-based approaches, early intervention and
activation, supportive measures enabling labour market integration, use of EU
Structural Funds, assessment and continuous improvement of the scheme, and its swift
implementation. As such, they aim at preventing early-school leaving, fostering
employability and removing practical barriers to employment. They can be
supported by the EU Structural Funds and should be continuously monitored and
improved.

(20)     Effective coordination and
partnerships across policy fields (employment, education, youth, social
affairs, etc.) is crucial in terms of boosting quality employment
opportunities, apprenticeships and traineeships.

(21)     Youth Guarantee schemes
need to take into account the diversity and different starting points of the
Member States as regards the levels of youth unemployment, institutional
set-up, and capacity of the various labour market players. They should also
take into account different situations as regards public budgets and financial
constraints in terms of allocation of resources[16]. In
the 2013 AGS the Commission considers that investments in education should be
prioritized and strengthened where possible, while ensuring the efficiency of
such expenditure. Particular attention should also be paid to maintaining or
reinforcing the coverage and effectiveness of employment services and active
labour market policies, such as training for the unemployed and Youth Guarantee
schemes. The establishment of such schemes is of
long-term significance, but there is also a need for a short-term response to
counter the dramatic effects of the economic crisis on the labour market.

RECOMMENDS THAT MEMBER STATES:

(1)
Ensure that all young people up to the age of 25
years receive a good-quality offer of employment, continued education, an
apprenticeship or a traineeship within four months of becoming unemployed or
leaving formal education.

When designing such a Youth Guarantee
scheme, Member States shall consider overarching issues such as the fact that
young people are not a homogeneous group facing similar social environments, as
well as principles of mutual obligation and the need to address the risk of
cycles of inactivity.

Youth Guarantee schemes shall be based on
the following guidelines, according to national, regional and local
circumstances and paying attention to the gender and diversity of the young
people who are being targeted:

Building up partnership-based approaches

(2)
Identify the public authority in charge of
establishing and managing the Youth Guarantee scheme and coordinating
partnerships across all levels and sectors.

(3)
Ensure that young people have full information
about services and support available by strengthening cooperation between
employment services, career guidance providers, education and training
institutions and youth support services, and by making full use of all relevant
information channels.

(4)
Strengthen partnerships between employers and
relevant labour market players (employment services, various levels of
government, trade unions and youth services) in order to boost employment,
apprenticeship and traineeship opportunities for young people.

(5)
Develop partnerships between public and private
employment services, career guidance services, and with other specialised youth
services (NGOs, youth centres and associations) that help smooth the transition
from unemployment, inactivity or education into work.

(6)
Ensure the active involvement of social partners
at all levels in designing and implementing policies targeted at young people;
promote synergies under their initiatives to develop apprenticeship and
traineeship schemes.

(7)
Ensure the involvement of representatives of
young people and/or youth organisations in designing and implementing the Youth
Guarantee scheme to tailor services to the needs of beneficiaries and to have
them act as multipliers in awareness-raising activities.

Early intervention and activation

(8)
Develop effective outreach strategies towards
young people with a view to catchment and registration with employment
services, focusing on young vulnerable people facing multiple barriers (such as
social exclusion, poverty or discrimination) and NEETs, and taking into
consideration their diverse backgrounds (due in particular to poverty,
disability, low educational attainment or ethnic minority/migrant background).

(9)
To support young people better and to address
the potential lack of awareness of existing offers, consider establishing
‘focal points’, i.e. an organisation that would ensure coordination between all
institutions and organisations concerned, in particular with the public
authority responsible for managing the Youth Guarantee scheme, so that
information could be shared about young people leaving school, in particular
about those at risk of not securing a job or further education.

(10)
Enable employment services, together with other
partners supporting young people, to provide personalised guidance and
individual action planning, including tailor-made individual support schemes,
based on the principle of mutual obligation at an early stage.

Supportive measures for labour market
integration

Enhancing skills

(11)
Offer early school-leavers and low-skilled young
people routes to re-enter education and training or second-chance education
programmes which provide learning environments responding to their specific
needs and enabling them to gain the qualification they missed.

(12)
Ensure that any action delivered in the context
of a Youth Guarantee scheme aimed at boosting skills and competences helps to
address existing mismatches and service labour-demand needs, particularly in
relation to the green economy, ICT and health care sectors.

(13)
Ensure that efforts to boost skills and
competences include ICT/digital skills. Promote the status of professional
knowledge and competences by ensuring that ICT curricula and certifications
conform to standards and are internationally comparable.

(14)
Encourage schools (primary and secondary),
including vocational training centres, and employment services to promote and
provide continued guidance on entrepreneurship and self-employment for young
people, including through entrepreneurship courses.

(15)
Ensure the validation of the skills, knowledge
and competences acquired through non-formal and informal learning experiences,
by acknowledging the skills, knowledge and
competences acquired in these activities and recognising that they boost
jobseekers’ chances on the labour market.

Labour market related measures

(16)
Reduce non-wage labour costs in order to boost
recruitment prospects amongst young people.

(17)
Use targeted and well-designed wage and
recruitment subsidies to encourage employers to create new opportunities for
young people, such as an apprenticeship, traineeship or job placement,
particularly for those furthest from the labour market, in line with the
applicable State aid rules.

(18)
Promote labour mobility by making young people
aware of job offers, traineeships and apprenticeships and available support in
different areas, regions and countries, e.g. through services and schemes, such
as EURES, which encourage people to move and work within the EU. Ensure that
adequate support is available to help young people who find work in another
area or Member State adapt to their new environment.

(19)
Make more start-up support services available,
including through closer cooperation between employment services, business
support and (micro)finance providers.

(20)
Enhance mechanisms for supporting young people
who drop out from activation schemes and no longer access benefits.

Use of EU Structural Funds

(21)
Make full and optimal use of the Cohesion Policy
funding instruments, in the next period 2014 – 2020 for supporting the
establishment of Youth Guarantee schemes. For this, ensure that the necessary
priority is given and corresponding resources are allocated for supporting the conception
and the implementation of the above measures, including the possibilities for
financing targeted recruitment subsidies from the European Social Fund. Make
also maximum use of funding still available from the 2007-2013 programming
period,.

(22)
In the context of the preparation for the period
2014-2020, pay the necessary attention in the Partnership Contract to the
specific objectives related to the implementation of Youth Guarantee schemes and
describe in the operational programmes the actions to be supported under the
relevant investment priorities of the European Social Fund, in particular those
concerning the sustainable integration of young people "NEETs" into
the labour market and support for young entrepreneurs and social enterprises
and their respective contribution to the specific objectives.

Assessment and continuous improvement of
schemes

(23)
Monitor and evaluate all Youth Guarantee actions
and programmes, so that more evidence-based policies and interventions can be
developed on the basis of what works, where and why, thus ensuring efficient
use of resources and positive returns on investment. Maintain an up-to-date
overview of how much funding has been allocated for the set-up and
implementation of the Youth Guarantee, in particular under Cohesion Policy
operational programmes.

(24)
Promote mutual learning activities at national,
regional and local level between all parties involved in combating youth
unemployment, in order to improve the design and delivery of future Youth
Guarantee schemes. Make full use of the results of projects supported in the
course of the preparatory action on Youth Guarantee schemes.

(25)
Strengthen the capacities of all stakeholders,
including the relevant employment services, involved in designing, implementing
and evaluating Youth Guarantee schemes, in order to eliminate any internal and
external obstacles related to policy and to the way these schemes are
developed.

Implementation of Youth Guarantee
schemes

(26)
Implement Youth Guarantee schemes as soon as
possible and ensure that they are properly integrated into the future EU
co-financed programmes, preferably as from the start of the 2014-2020
Multiannual Financial Framework.

NOTES THAT THE COMMISSION WILL:

Funding

(27)
In accordance with the relevant investment
priorities of the European Social Fund for the 2014-2020 programming period, encourage
Member States to make best use of the European Social Fund to support the
set-up and implementation of Youth Guarantee schemes as a policy instrument for
combating and preventing youth unemployment and social exclusion.

(28)
Support programming work under the EU Common
Strategic Framework Funds (European Social Fund, European Regional Development
Fund, Cohesion Fund, European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, European
Maritime and Fisheries Fund), including through peer learning, networking
activities and technical assistance.

Good Practices

(29)
Make full use of the new Programme on Social
Change and Innovation to gather examples of good practice on Youth Guarantee
schemes at national, regional and local level.

(30)
Use the European Employment Strategy Mutual
Learning Programme to encourage Member States to share their experiences and
exchange good practices.

Monitoring

(31)
Continue to monitor and report regularly on
developments concerning the design, implementation and results of Youth
Guarantee schemes as part of the annual programme of work of the European
Network of Public Employment Services.

(32)
Monitor the implementation of this
recommendation, and establish through the Employment Committee a multilateral
surveillance of the implementation of Youth Guarantee schemes within the
framework of the European Semester, analysing the impact of the policies in
place and addressing, where appropriate, country-specific recommendations to
the Member States.

Awareness-raising

(33)
Support awareness-raising activities on the
setting-up of the Youth Guarantee across the Member States, using the European
Youth Portal and liaising in particular with its information campaigns.

Done at Brussels,

For
the Council

The
President

[1]               Eurostat Labour Force main indicators, seasonally
adjusted quarterly data, youth is defined as less than 25 years of age, adults
as over 25.

[2]               COM(2012) 750 of 28 November 2012.

[3]               Further information at: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=88&eventsId=641

[4]               Further information on the cost-benefits of
implementing Youth Guarantee schemes can be found in the accompanying Staff
Working Document.

[5]               Eurofound (2012) NEETs – Young people not in
employment, education or training: Characteristics, costs and policy responses
in Europe, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.

[6]               Council Decision 2010/707/EU — OJ L 308/46 of 24
November 2010.

[7]               Council Decision 2005/600/EC — OJ L 205/21 of 6
August 2005.

[8]               Employment policy guidelines (2008-2010) — Council
Decision 2008/618/EC — OJ L 198/51 of 26 July 2008.

[9]               P7-TA(2010) 0262 of 6 July 2010.

[10]             OJ C 191/01 of 1 July 2011.

[11]             COM(2012) 173 of 18 April 2012.

[12]             COM(2012) 582 of 10 October 2012.

[13]             European Parliament resolution on the Youth
Opportunities Initiative (2012/2617(RSP)), 24.5.2012.

[14]             COM(2012) 669 of 20 November 2012.

[15]             COM(2012) 750 of 28 November 2012.

[16]             The expenditure on Youth Guarantee does not fall within
the category of gross fixed capital formation in national accounts.