Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the  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)
Date: 2005-10-26
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: European citizenship, education policy, employment policy, social policy, young person, youth policy

3.2.2006

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Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the ‘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 citizen-
ship’

(COM(2005) 206 final)

(2006/C 28/07)

On 30 May 2005, the European Commission decided to consult the European Economic and Social
Committee, under Article 262 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the abovementioned
proposal.

The Section for Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship, which was responsible for preparing the
Committee's work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 5 October 2005. The rapporteur was Mrs Jillian
van Turnhout.

At its 421st plenary session, held on 26 and 27 October 2005 (meeting of 26 October 2005), the Euro-
pean Economic and Social Committee adopted the following opinion by 126 votes in favour, no votes
against and with three abstentions.

1. Introduction

such as youth employment, social integration, education, mobi-
lity, participation and the role of NGOs. Whilst the EESC is
also cognisant of the challenges currently facing the European
Union and the need to regain confidence.

and

The

European

Economic

Social Committee
1.1
acknowledges the European Youth Pact and its elaboration as
outlined in this Communication from the Commission on
European policies concerning youth. This Communication
provides a framework that can serve as a basis for future policy
development in areas affecting young people in the European
Union.

1.2
The destiny of Europe increasingly depends on its ability
to foster societies that are welcoming towards children and
young people. Adoption of the European Pact for Youth by the
Spring 2005 European Council, as part of the revised Lisbon
Strategy focussing on growth and jobs, is a recognition that
integrating young people in society and working life, and
making better use of their potential, are essential for ensuring a
return to sustained and sustainable growth in Europe.

1.3
In acknowledgement of the multitude of challenges for
young people in today's society the EESC has regularly contrib-
uted to youth policy development at Community level for over
a decade (1). It has initiated important debates on key areas,

(1) White Paper: Youth Policy (OJ C 116 of 20.4.2001 – Rapporteur:

Mrs Hassett-van Turnhout)
European Commission White Paper - A New Impetus for European
Youth (OJ C 149 of 21.6.2002 – Rapporteur: Mrs Hassett-van
Turnhout)
Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the
Council establishing the European Year of Education through Sport
2004 (OJ C 149 of 21.6.2002 – Rapporteur: Mr Koryfidis)
Proposal for a European Parliament and of the Council decision
establishing a Community action programme to promote bodies
active at European level in the field of youth (OJ C 10 of 14.1.2004
– Rapporteur: Mrs Hassett-van Turnhout)
SOC/174 Relations between the generations
28.6.2005 – Rapporteur: Mr Bloch-Lainé)
SOC/177 Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of
the Council creating the Youth in Action programme for the period
2007-2013 (OJ C 234 of 22.9.2005– Rapporteur: Mr Rodríguez
García-Caro).

(OJ C 157 of

The EESC recommends that Young People are placed at
1.4
the centre of this framework and are encouraged and given
space to actively participate in the development of policies.
Contributing to change is a major motivation for young people
to get
involved. The Member States and institutions must
provide the necessary resources, supports and mechanisms to
facilitate young people at all levels to engage in decisions and
actions that impact on their lives. Only real influence will lead
to real responsibility.

1.5 More than ever, Europe needs young people's ongoing
commitment that will help to build an integrated, competitive,
safe and inclusive Europe. If the European Union is to mean
anything to young people, it must be relevant in their lives and
show a clear interest in and respond visibly and creatively to
their needs. Equally, success of this initiative depends on the
involvement of all parties concerned, in particular, youth orga-
nisations as well as regional and local authorities and the social
partners. The EESC has taken on board the ‘idea which
emerges’ from the High Level Group's report on the future of
social policy in an enlarged European Union: ‘from a new inter-
generational pact’ to a pact focused on the elderly and based
on fears … to a new pact focused on the young and based on
confidence … to turn all these fears into a ‘win-win’ process
based on a positive perception of the future and a new interge-
nerational balance'.

1.6
Consequently, the EESC hopes that this Communication
will lay the basis, both at the European and national level, for a
and young
greater partnership between decision-makers

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people. Real and continued involvement of young people and
youth organisations in the development and implementation of
policies will ensure that young peoples' real needs are addressed
and that young people feel an ownership of the Lisbon process.

2. Background

2.1
At the Spring European Council of 22-23 March, the EU
Heads of State and Government adopted a ‘European Youth
Pact’ (2). In proposing this Pact the Heads of State and Govern-
ment of France, Germany, Spain and Sweden identified four
principal issues: the vulnerability of young people; the need to
develop solidarity across the generations, in an ageing society;
the need to equip young people through their education and
training; the need for better coherence across all policy areas
that concern young people.

2.2
The Communication addresses a range of issues and
policy areas that are of high concern to young people in
Europe, and were identified as such in the Commission's White
Paper A new impetus for European youth and the subsequent
Council resolution of 27 June 2002, which set the framework
for youth policy in Europe.

reducing youth unemployment, better reconciliation of work
and private life and childcare facilities; guideline No 23 includes
reducing the number of early school leavers, increasing access
to initial vocational, secondary and higher education, including
apprenticeships and entrepreneurship training. Also, guideline
No 24 includes broadening the supply of education and
training tools, developing frameworks to support the transpar-
ency of qualifications, their effective recognition and the valida-
tion of non-formal and informal learning. At the end of the
employment guidelines,
is repeated that member states
should establish a broad partnership for change by involving
parliamentary bodies and stakeholders,
including those at
regional and local levels.

it

2.6
the
This initiative highlights youth in core areas of
Lisbon partnership for growth and jobs, in particular via the
European Employment and Social Inclusion Strategies and also
the Education and Training 2010 Work programme, and calls
for consistency across the initiatives within them.

2.3
In response to the Spring Council conclusions, the Euro-
pean Commission adopted integrated guidelines on 12 April (3).
This package of guidelines, comprising on the one hand a
recommendation for Broad Economic Policy Guidelines, and on
the other hand a proposal that has been endorsed for a Council
decision on Employment Guidelines, should serve as a basis for
the national reform programmes for the next three years, to be
drawn up by the member states.

2.7
Adoption of the Pact coincides with the completion of
the first cycle of implementing the White Paper on a new
impetus for European youth of 2001, taken forward in the
Council Resolution of June 2002. This established a framework
of European cooperation in the youth field for enhancing
young peoples' active citizenship, through an open method of
coordination (OMC) by including a youth dimension in other
policies.

In the introduction to the guidelines, the importance of
2.4
involving the relevant stakeholders in the Lisbon Strategy is
underlined, and it is stated that member states as well as the EU
should take every opportunity to involve regional and local
governments, social partners and civil society in the implemen-
tation of the integrated guidelines.

2.5 While the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines concen-
trate on the contribution of economic policies to achieving the
Lisbon goals, the Employment Guidelines relate especially to
the European Employment Strategy and aim to coordinate the
employment policies of the member states. It is in the Employ-
ment guidelines that, with specific reference to the European
Youth Pact, some action lines of the Pact are incorporated in
the integrated guidelines. Two guidelines in particular reflect
the content of
the European Youth Pact: guideline No 18
includes building employment pathways for young people and

(2) http://ue.eu.int/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/ec/84335.pdf.
(3) SOC/206 The Employment Guidelines: 2005-2008 (OJ C 286,

17.11.2005 – Rapporteur: Mr Malosse).

2.8
The European Youth Pact as it has been finally adopted
at the Spring Meeting of the European Council stresses the
need for young Europeans to benefit from a set of policies and
measures forming a fully integrated part of the Lisbon Strategy
and aims to improve the education, training, mobility, voca-
tional integration and social inclusion of young people, and to
facilitate the reconciliation of working life and family life. The
European Youth Pact also includes the ambition to ensure the
overall consistency of initiatives in these areas and to provide a
starting point for strong, ongoing mobilisation on behalf of
young people. It also notes that it the success of the European
Youth Pact depends on the
involvement of all parties
concerned, first and foremost national, regional and local youth
organisations as well as the European, regional and local autho-
rities and the social partners. Lines of action are proposed for
Member States to draw upon in three fields: 1) employment,
integration and social advancement; 2) education training and
mobility; and 3) the reconciliation of working life and family
life.

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3. Involvement of Young People

3.1
In drafting this opinion the EESC organised a consulta-
tion of representatives of organisations involving young people
on 6 September 2005. The results of this consultation are
included in this opinion.

3.2
The involvement of young people must be the starting
point for all strands. Any Policy aimed at young people must
be characterised by the fundamental principle of youth partici-
pation: a principle that is reiterated at European and Interna-
level (4). While the EESC welcomes the measures to
tional
consult with young people at a European level, in particular
through the organisation of the ‘États Généraux’ in 2005, it is
with regret that the EESC notes that the Communication does
not sufficiently outline with tangible recommendations how
young people and youth organisations will be involved and will
participate at a member state level. The EESC calls on the
Commission and Members States to utilise more creative
methods to reach and engage with young people.

3.3
The EESC stresses the importance of the active participa-
tion and autonomy of young people, not only in the labour
market, but in society at large. The active participation of
young people in society and their autonomy should be both an
objective and a method that contributes to the personal devel-
opment of young people, to their sense of initiative and their
social integration and to the social cohesion in general.

3.4
The EESC notes with regret that mechanisms to truly
involve young people and their organisations are not clearly
outlined in this Communication. At the hearing on 6 September
2005, referred to in point 3.1, students' organisations, among
others, stressed the extent to which seeing young people run
general interest organisations by proxy — in this instance, the
students' compulsory social security system — allowed young
people as a whole — not just organised youth — to take
responsibility for and to represent themselves as a group. The
EESC calls on the Commission and Member States to develop
and implement their policies in partnership with young people
and youth organisations and continue to involve them in all
steps. Young people and youth organisations and social part-
ners must be consulted on the development of measures for
this initiative with the national Lisbon reform programmes and
on following up implementation.

3.5
The EESC looks forward to receiving the synthesis
report (5) of the Commission documenting the work to date of
Member States in the area of youth participation as part of the
OMC (6) process.
It is hoped that this synthesis report will
provide examples of good practice which could be replicated in
other Member States.

3.6
The EESC seeks clarification on the role of civil society
organisations, in particular youth organisations, in the cycle of
the open method of co-ordination. It should be recalled that
paragraph 38 of
the Lisbon European Council conclusions
describes a role for NGOs in the Open Method of Coordina-
tion (7). Given its expertise and experience, the EESC can play
an active role in this field, and help devise and to enable a
mechanism within its own sphere for the involvement of
young people and youth organisations.

4. Youth in the Lisbon Partnership for Growth and Jobs

4.1
The EESC welcomes the special attention that the Pact is
giving to the issue of youth employment. However the Youth
Pact should be developed and implemented from a perspective
that views it as an important goal in itself, and not merely as
an element of the Lisbon Strategy. Moreover, while the success
of the Lisbon Strategy is important for young people, young
people are also important for the success of the Lisbon strategy.
Investing in young people is essential to achieve higher growth
and employment rates, continued innovation and stronger
entrepreneurship. Their involvement in the strategy and their
sense of ownership of and commitment to its objectives are
necessary to make Lisbon work.

is central

Likewise the issue of employment

4.2
to the
concerns of Europe's citizens and every effort must be made to
combat unemployment, the unacceptable level of which poses
a real threat to the cohesion of our societies (8). The youth
unemployment rate in Europe is still more than twice the
average unemployment rate. Many young people face the very
real possibility of being unemployed or struggling to live on

(4) EESC White Paper: Youth Policy, OJ C 116, 20.4.2001; Declaration
of the United Nations on the International Year of Youth 1985,
‘Peace Participation, Development’; United Nations Convention on
the Rights of the Child, 1989; European Charter on Participation of
Young People in Municipal and Regional Life of the Congress of
Local and Regional Authorities in Europe, 1992; Resolution of
Council and Ministers for Youth meeting with the Council of 8
February 1999 (OJ 1999/C42/01).

(5) It is forecast that this will be published by end of 2005.
(6) Open Method of Coordination.
(7) Paragraph 38 of the Lisbon conclusions states that a method of
benchmarking best practices and managing change will be devised
by the European Commission networking with different providers
and users, namely the social partners, companies and NGOs.
(8) European Council Presidency Conclusions, Luxembourg 1997.

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immigrants,

a low income. For young people from disadvantaged back-
grounds, ethnic minorities,
the disabled and
women, the risks of being socially excluded are even higher.
On the broader front, it is young people as a whole who are
affected by issues such as vulnerability, poverty and depen-
dency; this constitutes a historically unprecedented tragedy as
well as a new opportunity for forging solidarity among young
people as a whole and for society in order to find a way out of
this unprecedented situation in Europe.

Young people are more at risk of unemployment and, if
4.3
at work, of low income (9). The Lisbon Strategy aims to create
not only more jobs but better jobs. To ensure that every young
person has a real chance of entering the labour market, greater
emphasis must be given to appropriate training, education,
apprenticeships and opportunities for young people to achieve
personal and professional fulfilment and gain the necessary
skills for living.
It is also important that school education
should enable young people to manage their working lives and
make successful use of life-long learning mechanisms.

4.4
The EESC underlines the recognition of demographic
change in Europe and the links to the Commissions Green
Paper on confronting demographic change (10). For example the
number of 0-14 year olds will decline by 11 % from 2000 to
2015 and continue to do so by 6 % until 2030. Parallel to this
change the EESC underlines the social, cultural and political
change in Europe. Demographic change is not purely about
statistics and numbers, it is imperative that a wider perspective
is taken when considering the appropriate policies and actions.
As the High Level Group on the future of social policy in an
enlarged European Union points out, this demographic situa-
tion, which will see a significant reduction in the comparative
influence of young people as a group up until at least 2025
can, if we grasp it, present an opportunity as it implies ‘less
demand for societal resources’ and the possibility of bringing
about substantial improvements in these fields at a steady cost.

4.5
Therefore, the EESC believes that a European Pact for
and with young people would have the potential to significantly
improve the living conditions and prospects of young people
in Europe while at the same time it could reinforce the effective
implementation of the Lisbon Strategy.

5.2
In the Communication the following aspects of the Inte-
grated Guidelines were identified as relevant to maximise the
impact of the Youth Pact:

(i) Measures

for

the employment,

integration and social
advancement of young people. The Integrated Guidelines
concentrate on the contribution of employment policies to
creating more and better jobs.

(ii) Measures for education, training and mobility. The Inte-
grated Guidelines underline the need for Europe to expand
and improve investment in human capital, and to adapt
education and training systems.
In addition they invite
Member States to increase opportunities for mobility,
including increased opportunities for young people to
work and study aboard.

(iv) Measures for reconciliation of family life and work life. The
Integrated Guidelines address the need to achieve a better
work life balance addressing issues such as childcare,
family friendly working arrangements and equality.

The EESC is disappointed to note that while Actions
5.3
have been identified for each of
the above measures the
Communication fails to identify explicit and measurable targets
for either the Member States or for the Commission. At a time
when citizens are questioning the value of the European Union
it is vital that Europe is seen to take effective action. In order to
achieve this it is essential that the targets are unequivocal and
result-driven.

in their national

National governments must be encouraged to quantify
5.4
objectives and set clear
reform
targets
programmes. These objectives and targets must not only
address the challenges young people face in the areas identified
but also address issues which have a significant, albeit indirect,
influence on the achievement of these objectives. Housing and
accommodation as well as the need for family policy aimed at
young parents are prominent among these issues. It is also
important that effective coordination mechanisms are put in
to achieve a
place, both at European and national
coherent approach in all areas.

level,

5. The European Youth Pact

5.5
The EESC requests that the following targets be consid-
ered for inclusion in Member States Lisbon Strategy national
reform programmes:

5.1
The EESC welcomes the conclusions of the European
Council that young people would benefit from a set of policies
and measures fully integrated in the revised Lisbon Strategy.

(9) Report of the High Level Group on the future of social policy in an

enlarged European Union.

(10) COM(2005) 94 -Demographic change - solidarity between the

generations.

— Set targets for each Member State to reduce the number of
young people unemployed by a minimum of 50 % in the
period 2006-2010 (currently 17.9 % in European Union for
under 25s) (11).

(11) Page 3 Commission Communication.

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— Develop social protection systems that enable young people
to be in a position to make choices to determine their own
future.

— Initiate measures to promote the social inclusion of young
the problem of young
people,
people who are not in education, training, employment or
registered as unemployed.

in particular to combat

— Set targets to reduce the gender gap as regards access to
training, and reduce wage

vocational and technological
differences at the time of recruitment.

— Reduce early school leaving by 50 % in the period 2006-

2010 and promote work experience in companies.

— Promote the importance of foreign language competence in
improving education and employment opportunities as well
as the mobility of young people.

— Foster young entrepreneurship by providing financial and
technical
support and by minimising the bureaucracy
involved in taking over, transferring and establishing an
enterprise.

— Support

regulated,

inspected universal early childhood

education and care to agreed standards.

— Provide additional supports to families experiencing disad-

vantage.

5.6
The EESC encourages the Commission to continue its
work on the recognition of youth work and looks forward to
the introduction of initiatives including ‘Youthpass’. However
the EESC considers that the ‘Youthpass’ alone is not sufficient
action in order to strengthen the recognition of youth work. It
therefore recommends that
the Commission should engage
with employer organisations, workers organisations, representa-
tives of the formal education system and appropriate NGOs to
develop versatile methodology to raise the awareness on the
contribution of youth work to the development of young
people and the skills, values and attitudes that young people
gain through active involvement in youth organisations and
youth work activities. The EESC could facilitate this process.

Forum all have high level of investment in social policy and
social protection and show high employment rates and low
transfers (12). Sustainable social security
poverty after social
systems, bases on the principle of solidarity, designed to afford
protection against the major risks encountered in the life of the
individual are the foundations for success.

5.8
The EESC urges that the situation of young people in
rural areas and poor urban areas be given greater consideration.
Young people are often disadvantaged because of the area in
which they live. In many rural areas and poor urban areas,
young people do not have access to high quality education,
training, mobility, health services, leisure facilities, employment
opportunities or have chances to participate in civil society.
Specific measures should be introduced to ensure that young
people in certain geographical areas could benefit fully from
opportunities and make choices in their own lives. The remote-
ness of many rural areas means that young people do not have
good access to information, especially regarding opportunities.

5.9
The EESC welcomes the proposal to launch a study on
the social integration of highly disadvantaged young people in
2005. However, Member States need to step up to the chal-
lenge of eradicating child poverty and put immediate targets in
place. Meeting this challenge will require a comprehensive,
sustained and fully-resourced programme of action that
addresses the multi-dimensional nature of child poverty. Child
poverty has a severe impact on children across a range of
issues such as health, education and even a child's future ‘life
chances’ of ever breaking out of the poverty trap. Member
States need to immediately implement policies addressing the
entire spectrum of these issues.

committed

The Commission is

5.10
to mainstream
disability, which it expressly confirms in the European Action
Plan on Equal Opportunities for people with disabilities from
2003 (13). Therefore the Commission has a duty to combat
discrimination in all actions of the Commission. Mainstreaming
disability is necessary in order to ensure the full and equal
participation and inclusion of disabled persons in society. In
order to include disabled young persons entirely in youth
policy, the EESC stresses that the following points need be
included in the Communication: Equal participation to the
activities of the Youth Programme; Equal Access to information
on youth policy and youth projects and Awareness raising
measures.

5.7
The European countries which score top positions in
the competitiveness ranking drawn up by the World Economic

(12) Report of the High Level Group on the Future of Social Policy in

an enlarged European Union, May 2004.
(13) COM(2003) 650 final, Brussels 30.10.2003.

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5.11
Young people are not an homogeneous group. The
EESC recommends, therefore, that policies made at the national
level should be sufficiently varied and respect the needs of both
the labour market and the individual. The Committee also
recommends
the European Commission conduct an
analysis of the circumstances and needs of young people in
Europe.

that

6.4
In its discussions on the representativeness of European
civil society organisations in civil dialogue the EESC has already
emphasised on several occasions (14) that only clearly estab-
lished representativeness can give civil society players the right
to participate effectively in the process of
shaping and
preparing Community decisions, as is the case for the social
partners under the European social dialogue.

6. Active Citizenship of Young People

The EESC commends the Commission for including the
6.1
active citizenship of young people in this initiative despite the
fact that it was excluded from the European Youth Pact. The
EESC concurs with the Commission's proposal to maintain and
consolidate the four current objectives of: participation; infor-
mation; voluntary activities and knowledge of youth issues.
However, the EESC underlines the importance of ensuring that
the focus of the Open Method of Coordination should now be
to produce tangible results. Therefore where deficiencies in the
OMC system and process are identified they must be noted and
addressed.

The EESC recognises

6.2
that Member States will be
reporting on the common objectives for participation and
information by the end of 2005, and that reports on voluntary
activities and better knowledge of the youth field will follow in
2006. However, the EESC calls for increased partnership and
highlights the value of including all stakeholders, most particu-
larly young people and youth organisations in drawing up the
national progress reports. In the interests of transparency it is
also important that these reports are developed publicly and/or
at least available publicly when submitted. Also NGOs should
be encouraged and supported financially to engage in their
own evaluation of the OMC process.

6.3
Civil society organisations and the social partners are an
integral part of any pluralistic democracy. In this context youth
organisations, play a valuable role in promoting active citizen-
ship and participation. They do this by working directly with,
and for young people in building their personal skills and
confidence, so that they can reach their potential and achieve
the optimum standard and quality of life. These organisations
operate at a grassroots level, tackling local
issues with the
support of individuals and groups in their own area. They are
also working to promote and build the capacity of young
people to self advocate. Youth NGOs should be adequately
financially supported and given the necessary recognition and
means to be able to participate as real actors in decision-
making and society at all levels.

that

The EESC notes with disappointment

6.5
the main
contribution that volunteers make to society highlighted by the
Commission was with regard to their role in natural disasters.
While this role is worthy, the EESC considers that the Commis-
sion and the Member States should recognise and highlight the
ongoing and continuing role that volunteers play in a wide
variety of NGOs at local, regional, national and European level.
In particular, the Committee calls on the Member States to
facilitate voluntary activities by means of suitable tax policies,
recognising that voluntary activities are not only a source of
psychological and ethical satisfaction for young people, but
also make it possible for innumerable social welfare services to
be provided, or to make them less costly.

6.6
The EESC regrets that the actions proposed are minimal
and have no targets or clear objectives. This is a missed oppor-
tunity to progress this key component.

6.7
European programmes have an important role in contri-
buting to the objectives of the Open Method of Coordination
and the European Youth Pact, as well as strengthening young
people's involvement in other policies that concern them. The
EESC supports the Commission's view that projects that encou-
rage young people to become active, involved citizens and that
are aimed at helping them develop their capacities should be
developed at local, regional, national and European level within
the different European programmes.
the
However, while many programmes could indeed be used with
this aim,
these
programmes by and for young people and youth organisations
and to make these programmes more youth-friendly. The use
of different programmes, especially the European Social Fund

there is a need to promote the use of

framework of

(14) See for example the documentation concerning the ‘First Conven-
tion of civil society organised at European level’ of 15 and
16 October 1999 and the Conference on ‘The role of organised
civil society in European governance’ of 8 and 9 November 2001,
and the relevant opinions:
‘The role and contribution of civil
society organisations in the building of Europe’, 23 September
1999 (OJ C 329 of 17 November 1999),
‘The Commission and
non-governmental organisations: building a stronger partnership’,
13 July 2000 (OJ C 268 of 19 September 2000), ‘Organised civil
society and European governance – the Committee's contribution
to the drafting of the White Paper’, 26 April 2001 (OJ C 193 of 10
July 2001),
‘European Governance – a White Paper’, 21 March
2002 (OJ C 125 of 27 May 2002).

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and the Structural Funds, is a major opportunity to advance
youth policy from rhetoric to action. Different projects realised
to promote the living conditions or the employment of young
people are often too small to be supported with these funds.
Therefore the Commission and the Member States should
engage with youth organisations to facilitate the use of EU
programme funding in favour of young people in Europe.

The EESC believes that the programme with the greatest
6.8
potential to enhance the personal and social development of
young people and to promote active citizenship is the Euro-
pean Youth Programme. We welcome the initiative for a new
Youth in Action Programme for the years 2007—2013 and
will continue to be actively involved in the preparation process.
Considering the enlargement of
the programme and the
increasing will of young people to benefit from it, we strongly
demand from the Council to support the proposal to moder-
ately increase the funding for this programme to €1,200
million. Further we believe that young people, European youth
organisations and the European Youth Forum have to be regu-
larly consulted on the implementation of the programme. The
EESC calls on national economic and social councils to become
involved in innovative experiments in order to make it easier
for young people to participate in national consultation proce-
dures, and to exchange best practices regarding the role of
young people within their organisations.

7. Including the Youth Dimension in other policies

The EESC supports

7.1
to
primarily concentrate on the policy areas covered by the

the Commission's proposal

Brussels, 26 October 2005.

European Youth Pact. Nonetheless the EESC underlines the
importance of an integrated and cross-sectoral youth policy,
when developing polices in the youth field.

7.2
A horizontal approach to the development of policy will
ensure a more coordinated and effective strategy. Member
States regularly consult with Employer and Trade Union orga-
nisations when developing policies such as employment guide-
lines. Equally Member States must consult with young people
and their organisations on policies that affect them.

7.3
The EESC notes in its own initiative opinion ‘Obesity in
Europe — role and responsibilities of civil society partners (15)’
that more than 14 million children are overweight in Europe,
including 3 million obese. But even more worrying:
this
number rises by 400,000 each year. The EESC calls for a collec-
tive involvement of all stakeholders including young people.

shares

The Committee

the Commission's primary
7.4
concern for actions focusing on the health of children and
young people, and particularly healthy lifestyles. It is convinced
that actions of this kind have a real impact on citizens, and are
urgently needed. It therefore calls for the initiative in support
of such actions, scheduled for 2006, to be brought forward to
2005, also in the light of the consultations and initiatives
already under way.

7.5
The EESC encourages the Seventh Research Framework
Programme to undertake research on the impact of young
peoples' participation in representative democracy and in
voluntary activities. This report could potentially provide an
insight into the impact of participation.

The President

of the European Economic and Social Committee

Anne-Marie SIGMUND

(15) SOC 201 (2005) - Obesity in Europe – role and responsibilities of

civil society partners.