EN Official Journal of the European Union C 172/65

Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on ‘Full involvement of young people in society’

(2008/C 172/13)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

— regrets that although, in the communication, the Commission sets out the need for cooperation between policy makers and interest groups at European, national, regional and local level in the development of the youth strategy, it has failed to describe in detail the role that regional and local authorities would play.

— emphasises that youth policy is largely implemented at regional and local level. Local and regional strategies contribute substantially to ensuring that young people take up high-quality measures aimed at better education and training, better social and professional integration, and active citizenship.

— agrees with the Commission that national and regional education and training systems must teach basic skills geared to the labour market. It should not be overlooked, however, that solid, basic education which helps shape personalities is important too for an individual's participation in social life.

— considers, in contrast to the Commission, that the priority with children of pre-school age is not so much to develop key abilities, as to develop their overall personalities.

— deems the dual training system used in a number of countries, which combines training at work and school and is geared to integrating as many young people as possible in the labour market, to be an exemplary training method, and regrets that vocational training in many Member States is considered unattractive and difficult to accept.

Rapporteur : Gebhard HALDER (AT/EPP); President of the Vorarlberg Landtag

Reference document

Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions — Promoting young people's full participation in education, employment and society

COM(2007) 498 final

Policy recommendations

OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

General comments on the Commission Communication

1. notes that young people provide society with its potential for development. The future of the European Union, its Member States and its regional and local authorities depends more and more on whether we succeed in creating a child and youth-friendly society.

2. emphasises that young people are also crucial for developing the economic strength of the European regions and municipalities and their ability to survive global competition. Moreover, involving EU citizens in society is an important cornerstone for social cohesion and the peaceful and democratic development of Europe, and one which must already be set during youth.

3. draws attention to the Committee of the Regions' opinion on the demographic future of Europe (1). Too few children are being born to maintain current population levels. This is leading to far-reaching changes in the size and age structure of the European population. It therefore highlights the need for a policy which is adapted to the different generations and is sustainable.

4. recognises therefore that the Youth Pact adopted by the European Council in Spring 2005 (2), the Commission Communication on European policies concerning youth (3), and the present Communication deal with a subject of the utmost importance.

5. supports the cross-cutting approach proposed by the Commission. It is important to take the concerns of young people into account consistently in all policy areas, in order to achieve greater focus on young people's special needs.

6. points out that responsibility for the introduction of suitable measures in the areas dealt with in the Communication — education and training, youth and employment -, lies with the Member States and the regional and local level of government. The European level plays a supplementary coordinating and supporting role.

7. against this background, calls on the Commission to check whether the proposed measures conform to the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality which have been consolidated with the EU Reform Treaty.

8. notes that the Commission has not presented an impact assessment in connection with the communication, and regrets that it has not examined the additional administrative and financial burden that its implementation would create at regional and local level.

Importance for the regional and local level

9. regrets that although, in the communication, the Commission sets out the need for cooperation between policy makers and interest groups at European, national, regional and local level in the development of the youth strategy, it has failed to describe in detail the role that regional and local authorities would play.

10. emphasises that youth policy is largely implemented at regional and local level. Local and regional strategies contribute substantially to ensuring that young people take up high-quality measures aimed at better education and training, better social and professional integration, and active citizenship. The regional and local level is best placed to focus on the specific needs of young people, and, therefore, more targeted action can be taken here.

11. calls on the Commission to respect national, regional and local diversity in the areas of education, youth and employment. In drawing up and implementing the coordinating, supporting and supplementary measures, it must not only involve the national but also regional and local authorities.

Better and more education for all young people

12. stresses that European education and training systems are key factors in developing the long-term competitive potential of the EU, and therefore welcomes the substance of the work programme entitled ‘Education and Training 2010’ (4). At the same time though, it points out that the responsibility of Member States, and regional and local authorities, for determining the content and form of education systems, must be respected, as must the diversity of cultures and languages.

13. agrees with the Commission that national and regional education and training systems must teach basic skills geared to the labour market. It should not be overlooked, however, that solid, basic education which helps shape personalities is important too for an individual's participation in social life.

14. considers, in contrast to the Commission, that the priority with children of pre-school age is not so much to develop key abilities, as to develop their overall personalities. Nonetheless, by offering very young children inter alia technology or science-related possibilities for play, their potential and interest in these areas can be awakened in a playful manner. This can be a major factor influencing subsequent career choices.

15. highlights the importance of promoting language learning as part of early childhood education. This is particularly important for migrant children. It is also the basis for acquiring further languages later.

16. deems the dual training system used in a number of countries, which combines training at work and school and is geared to integrating as many young people as possible in the labour market, to be an exemplary training method, and regrets that vocational training in many Member States is considered unattractive and difficult to accept. However, this system, along with post-secondary and university education in general, is facing higher and higher qualification requirements for a large number of jobs. The attractiveness of this education system needs to be boosted, in particular by improving the possibilities for university access which the dual education system can offer.

17. therefore believes that education levels need to be raised overall. Highly qualified and motivated teaching staff and trainers who not only have technical knowledge and teaching abilities, but also social integrational skills (5), are a crucial prerequisite for this. In addition, curricula must reflect the requirements of the labour market.

18. welcomes the fact that the Commission has called on the Member States to implement the European Qualifications Framework, and requests that national and regional diversity in education be taken into account here. Thus, for example, solutions need to be found for the inclusion of training modules geared to working life.

19. highlights the importance of the EU programmes for lifelong learning and ‘Youth in Action’; These programmes which focus on cross-border mobility and the formal and informal learning associated with this, are a valuable complement to national, regional and local education policies.

20. calls on the Commission to look into the situation faced by disadvantaged young people in greater detail in the Communication and the measures put forward by it (for example in the EU programmes). Training schemes, such as vocational training with a strong integrational element, can be useful in giving these young people the opportunity to develop their individual potential and establish themselves in the labour market. They offer disadvantaged young people the possibility to complete training over a longer period of time or obtain partial qualifications. Here intensive social support and mentoring for young people is important, and this can only be provided at regional and local level. These schemes can also help reduce the number of school drop-outs, which is still very high.

Youth and Employment: a challenge for Europe

21. notes that the transition from school to working life is becoming increasingly difficult for young people to master.

22. already now many European regions are confronted with a paradoxical situation where they face, in some cases, very high youth unemployment (6) and at the same time must deal with shortages of labour — especially highly skilled workers — which are set to grow.

23. highlights that the professional and social integration of young people in disadvantaged city and rural areas is particularly difficult, and, in this context, emphasises the importance of European, national, regional and local policies to support convergence and improve regional competitiveness, not least also as a way of creating the conditions required for qualified young people to stay in these regions.

24. agrees with the Commission that particular attention must be paid to youth employment in the national reform programmes for growth and employment, and calls for reform programmes to be optimally dovetailed with the measures in the 'Education and training 2010' work programme.

25. requests that the EU Lisbon peer review process, in which Member State governments are engaged, be extended to allow local and regional authorities and other stakeholders to benefit from peer exchanges across the EU, which would enable them to explore local and regional initiatives targeted at young people not in employment, education and training.

26. considers the steady growth in precarious working conditions with low job security as a fundamental problem, especially for young employees, who are often unable to achieve stable and adequate working/income conditions over many years, and are thus unable to lead independent lives.

27. therefore calls on the EU Institutions, the Member States and regional and local authorities to ensure a sound balance between the interests of the employers and employees, in other words, between flexibility and security, is struck in any implementation of flexicurity. The social integration of young people must not be made more difficult.

28. believes that the Commission does not adequately address the employment of disadvantaged young people. Besides preventative measures which concern above all labour market-oriented education for young people, intensive, tailor-made support measures — including those of a social kind — are needed to integrate young people, especially disadvantaged ones, in the labour market. It is crucial here to include all young people without exception, and to integrate them in the employment process within the shortest time possible, as has also been called for in the European Employment Strategy. This may also require ‘safety nets’ for disadvantaged young people seeking work, and the introduction of publically financed qualification and employment programmes targeted at young people (7).

29. points out that the EU structural funds, especially the European Social Fund (ESF), make it possible to fund these kinds of projects, and supports the call made by the Commission in the Communication for the ESF to place greater focus on youth employment wherever regional circumstances — high youth unemployment — so require.

30. considers improving young people's employability, as well as their willingness to enter employment, as an essential task for national, regional and local authorities. Efforts in the provision of personal career guidance and information, amongst other things, should be stepped up to raise young people's awareness about career paths that offer good prospects. This might also help secure gender balance in certain career groups.

31. supports the quality framework for work experience by the Commission which is to provide general guidance, since trainees — who are increasingly employed across borders — are in some cases improperly used as ‘cheap labour’. Quality work experience, however, provides young people with a useful opportunity to gain initial experience in the work place, which can often play a substantial and decisive role in subsequent career choices and education. Young people in training must be encouraged to gain work experience, and the range of work available for this expanded.

32. points out that not just basic training, but also further vocational training is becoming more important. The technical knowledge and skills required at work are changing rapidly. The challenge therefore is to improve the attractiveness and openness of further education and expand the range of further education measures on offer. It is important to give young people who do not have adequate basic training the opportunity to catch up on their knowledge and close skill gaps (second chance) (8).

Using everyone's potential to the full

33. notes that children and young people from poor families are particularly disadvantaged in many respects, and in some cases are also excluded from education and employment opportunities, as well as health services. In addition, poverty is often ‘inherited’: poverty and social exclusion in adult life are the consequences of a disadvantaged childhood and youth.

34. stresses, therefore, that fighting poverty and social exclusion must be a priority. This is primarily a national, regional and local responsibility and requires close coordination between economic, employment, education and social policy, as well as a cross-cutting approach to youth policy issues.

35. believes that reducing the risk of poverty faced by families with children must be the starting point. Special attention needs to be paid to socio-economic factors such as segregation and parents in long-term unemployment and of low education levels, in order to avoid permanent poverty traps.

36. points out that it is often local and regional authorities that are responsible for looking after and educating orphans and children from problem families, and that they put in place the conditions that enable such children to live independent lives.

37. points out that mastery of the language of the country of residence is a precondition for rapid integration, better results at school and greater opportunities in the labour market, and is thus also a major factor in fighting poverty.

Active young citizens

38. emphasises that involving young people — allowing them to contribute and share in social life — strengthens children and teenagers, gives them self-confidence and promotes democracy and active citizenship.

39. points to the special importance of participation processes at local and regional level. Participation is at its most vibrant and stable in places where young people help shape their environment and where they directly experience the effects of such participation.

40. notes that it is very important to introduce children and young people to local and regional self-government mechanisms by familiarising them with the positions, functions and responsibilities of local elected representatives and their capacity to improve local people's living and working conditions.

41. would welcome an exchange of experience at European level to boost local and regional participation initiatives, and calls on national and EU authorities, as well as regional and local ones, to develop youth policy by adopting a cross-sectoral approach and working in close cooperation with young people.

42. considers the proposal by the European Commission to present a regular youth report to be a positive step. The report will help analyse young people's living conditions and set out their concerns; it will thus create a basis for cross-sectoral youth policies at the national regional, local and EU level. Care should be taken to ensure that no new reporting duties are created for the Member States, regions, and municipalities. The existing numerous reporting obligations, which also offer insight into young people's living conditions, already contain much of the information needed.

43. stresses that voluntary activities are an important opportunity for young people to become actively involved in society and at the same time gain initial work experience, helping them to make future career choices.

44. points out that voluntary work also allows knowledge and skills to be acquired that could be useful in later working life. Recognising the qualifications acquired through such informal learning is necessary for boosting the attractiveness of these activities.

45. welcomes, therefore, the ‘Youth pass’ introduced by the Commission as part of the EU-programme ‘Youth in Action’, which serves as an individual certificate on the quality of the work carried out by young people in the programme, and supports the Commission's plan to include informally acquired qualifications to the Community Framework for the transparency of qualifications and competences (Europass) (9).

46. calls for greater attention to be paid to disadvantaged young people at all levels to ensure that they are given more opportunities to become involved in social and voluntary activities.

Brussels, 10 April 2008. The President of the Committee of the Regions Luc VAN DEN BRANDE

(1) Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the demographic future of Europe, CoR 341/2006 rev. 3.

(2) Appendix I to the Conclusions of the Presidency of the European Council, Brussels 22 and 23 March 2005 (7619/05).

(3) Communication from the Commission to the Council on European policies concerning youth ‘Addressing the concerns of young people in Europe — implementing the European Youth Pact and promoting active citizenship’, COM(2005) 206 final.

(4) Detailed work programme on the follow-up of the objectives of education and training systems in Europe, OJ C 142/01 of 14.6.2002.

(5) See also Commission Communication ‘Improving the Quality of Teacher Education’, COM(2007) 392 and the Conclusions of the Council and of the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States on improving the quality of teacher education, OJ C 300/6 of 12.12 2007.

(6) According to reports, youth unemployment currently stands at 17.4 %.

(7) In some cases, easily accessible ‘work experience’ should be made available to young people who have lost touch with public and educational institutions. The partial and temporary payment of labour costs can also act as an incentive for companies to take on first time entrants to the labour market. Studies show that this can have a positive macro-economic impact, especially if one also considers the socio-political impact that a larger number of long-term unemployed would otherwise have.

(8) These education measures, which are also funded by the ESF, are an essential precondition for entry into the labour market. Examples include literacy courses or courses for completing compulsory education.

(9) Cf. Decision No 2241/2004/EC.