# EUR-Lex - 52013DC0144 - EN

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# 52013DC0144

**COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS Youth Employment Initiative /* COM/2013/0144 final */**

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COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL
COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

Youth Employment Initiative

Introduction

The economic crisis is having an exceptionally severe impact on
young people: the EU youth unemployment rate stood at 23.6 % in January 2013,
more than twice as high as the adult rate, and no signs of improvement are in
sight. 7.5 million Europeans aged 15-24 are neither in employment nor in
education or training.

The situation is particularly acute in certain Member States and in
certain regions. This poses a serious threat to social cohesion in the EU and
risks having a long-term negative impact on economic potential and
competitiveness. EU institutions and governments, businesses and social
partners at all levels need to do all they can to avoid a "lost
generation".

To tackle the
unacceptably high levels of youth unemployment, the Commission adopted the
Youth Employment Package on 5 December 2012. It includes a proposal for a
Council Recommendation on Establishing a Youth Guarantee[1], launches a second-stage social
partner consultation on a Quality Framework on Traineeships[2], announces a European Alliance
for Apprenticeships and outlines ways to reduce obstacles to mobility for young
people.[3]

The EU structural
funds have already made an important contribution to the on-going fight against
youth unemployment, in particular through the action teams established under
the Youth Opportunities Initiative adopted in December 2011[4].

The European
Council of 7-8 February 2013 recalled the considerable support already provided
by the EU. Recognising the particularly difficult situation of young people in
certain regions, it has proposed a Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) with a
budget of € 6 billion over seven years (2014-2020) and open to all regions with
a level of youth unemployment above 25%.

This initiative
would be funded within the Cohesion Policy sub-heading by € 3 billion coming
from targeted investment from the European Social Fund (ESF) and € 3 billion
coming from a dedicated budget line.

In order to put in
place all conditions necessary for a quick implementation of the YEI, the
Commission sets out hereafter the key parameters it proposes for the YEI and
introduces the Commission proposals for the corresponding amendments to the Common Provisions Regulation
(CPR) covering the European Structural and Investment Funds and to the European
Social Fund Regulation that are currently in discussion between the European
Parliament and the Council.

Making the Youth
Employment Initiative a reality

By reinforcing and accelerating the delivery of activities supported by
ESF funding, the YEI should support in the eligible regions the implementation
of important Commission initiatives, namely, the Youth Employment Package and
in particular the Recommendation on Establishing a Youth Guarantee, politically
agreed by the Council on 28 February 2013 which aims to ensure that all young
people aged 15-24 not in employment, education or training (so-called NEETs)
receive a good-quality offer of employment, continued education, an apprenticeship
or traineeship within a period of four months of becoming unemployed or leaving
formal education.

The precise measures will be agreed between the Commission and the
Member States in the context of the cohesion policy programming process, but
all activities supported by the YEI will target individual persons who are not
in employment, education or training rather than systems or structures. The YEI
will thus be complementary to operations undertaken at national level,
including those with ESF support, with a view to setting up or implementing the
Youth Guarantee schemes. To achieve this complementarity, the implementation of
the YEI should be fully integrated in ESF programming
under the investment priority on support to the sustainable integration of
young NEETs into the labour market. Where appropriate, Member States should be
allowed and encouraged as part of the YEI to allocate for dealing with the problem
of youth unemployment and inactivity more ESF resources than the minimum € 3
billion ESF effort required as match funding of the specific YEI allocation.

The investments supported
by the YEI should be strongly oriented towards achieving concrete results and
achieving them quickly. The Commission therefore proposes to frontload the YEI,
notably by not submitting it to the performance reserve mechanism, to achieve
tangible impact early on in the implementation. It will also encourage Member
States to use the new instrument of Joint Action Plans proposed for the
2014-2020 programming period as a way to simplify implementation and focus on
results. In order to avoid that budgetary constraints become an impediment to a
smooth implementation of the YEI, it is proposed that only the ESF contribution
should be co-financed from national resources.

The implementation of the YEI should be based on a comprehensive
strategy for achieving the objectives of the Youth Employment Package and for
establishing a Youth Guarantee in line with the Council Recommendation. As
described in the Council Recommendation, Member States will design the scheme
according to national, regional and local circumstances, considering issues
such as the fact that young people are not a homogenous group, principles of
mutual obligation and the need to address the risk of cycles of inactivity. Macroeconomic conditionality should apply. When taking into account
the economic and social circumstances of the Member State concerned, attention
should be paid to the labour market situation and prospects of young people.

At Member State
level, the YEI would be programmed within the ESF. Specific provisions for
publicity, monitoring progress and evaluating impact as well as financial management
and reporting of the YEI will be of particular importance to ensure that its
implementation is simple and its contribution can be measured and is visible.

For this purpose,
the Commission is amending its proposals for the Common Provisions Regulation
and the ESF Regulation.

Conclusion

Making the Youth Guarantee a reality requires well-targeted public
investments, which the ESF can strongly support. The YEI should reinforce the
necessary ESF support to human capital investment as called for by the European
Council. The Commission therefore reiterates its proposal for establishing ESF
minimum shares with the aim to ensure that the ESF part in EU cohesion policy
resources increases from the current 22% to at least 25%.

[1]               COM(2012)
729 final

[2]               COM (2012) 728 final

[3]               COM(2012)
727 final

[4]               COM(2011)
933 final