Opinion of the Committee of the Regions 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
Date: 2006-02-16
Institutions: European Committee of the Regions
Subjects: European citizenship, education policy, employment policy, social integration, vocational training, young person

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Official Journal of the European Union

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cost of
introducing and operating a further trading system
would exceed the savings thereby made. Apart from the high
administrative cost, fair allocation would be even more difficult
than in the case of emissions trading (question 15);

2.21
calls for further investment in the development of
local public passenger transport and rail infrastructure. Only if
reasonable alternatives to individual transport (cars) exist can a
reduction in car
term;
welcomes in this context the fact that the European Commis-
sion's Proposal for a Regulation on public passenger transport
services by rail and by road accepts the principle of local and
regional authority autonomy in the provision of this service of
interest, which constitutes recognition of the role of
general

traffic be expected in the longer

these authorities in providing local public passenger transport
services;

calls on the Commission to encourage industry to
2.22
shoulder its responsibility and to adopt various measures aimed
at reducing final consumer prices for energy-efficient equip-
ment and renewable-energy technologies; concurs with the
European Parliament that impressive cost reductions have been
achieved in individual technologies in recent years, but that
additional reductions are needed to make measures to raise
energy-efficiency attractive to the public;

2.23
sees it as the duty of the EU, given Europe's relatively
high environmental standards, to negotiate tariff or non-tariff
advantages in the WTO for energy-efficient products.

Brussels, 16 February 2006.

The President

of the Committee of the Regions

Michel DELEBARRE

Opinion of the Committee of the Regions 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

(2006/C 192/04)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS,

HAVING REGARD TO 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);

HAVING REGARD TO the decision of the European Commission of 30 May 2005 to consult it on this
subject, under the first paragraph of Article 265 of the Treaty establishing the European Community;

HAVING REGARD TO the decision of its President of 25 July 2005 to instruct its Commission for
Culture and Education to draw up an opinion on this subject;

HAVING REGARD TO the European Youth Pact (Presidency conclusions of the Brussels European Council
(22 and 23 March 2005) 7619/05 Annex 1);

HAVING REGARD TO its opinion on the Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the
Council — Creating the ‘Youth in action’ programme for the period 2007-2013 (1) (CdR 270/2004 fin) (2);

HAVING REGARD TO its global opinion on the follow-up to the White Paper on a New Impetus for European
Youth — Proposed common objectives for voluntary activities by young people and Proposed common objectives for

(1) COM(2004) 471 final.
(2) OJ C 71 of 22.3.2005, p. 34.

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greater understanding and knowledge of youth (3) (CdR 192/2004 fin) (4);

HAVING REGARD TO its opinion on the Commission's Communication on the Follow-up to the White
Paper on a New Impetus for European Youth. Proposed common objectives for the participation and information of
young people, in response to the Council Resolution of 27 June 2002 regarding the framework of European coopera-
tion in the youth field (5) (CdR 309/2003 fin) (6);

HAVING REGARD TO its opinion on the Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the
Council on a single framework for the transparency of qualifications and competences (Europass) (7) (CdR 307/2003
fin) (8);

HAVING REGARD TO the draft opinion of the Commission for Culture and Education, adopted on
7 December 2005 (CdR 253/2005 rev. 2) (rapporteur: Mr Pella, Member of Cossato Municipal Council
(IT/EPP));

adopted the following opinion at its 63rd plenary session, held on 15-16 February 2006 (meeting
of 16 February):

1. Introduction

2. Application of the Open Method of Coordination

The Committee of the Regions

1.1
takes note of the Communication on European policies
concerning youth, implementing the European Youth Pact, and
welcomes its wide-ranging overview of the issues, which covers
many different EU policy areas;

1.2 welcomes the element of continuity that this Commu-
following on from the Commission White
nication brings,
Paper on A new impetus for European youth, the Council Resolu-
tion of 27 June 2002 and the Integrated Guidelines for Growth
and Jobs, adopted by the Commission on 12 April 2005;

2.1
The CoR hopes that the application of the open method
of coordination will make sufficient use of the role of local and
regional authorities, thereby respecting their remit.

2.2
The CoR believes that, with regard to youth policies,
the objectives of the open method of coordination should be:
a) to draw young people into local life so that they become
more involved in policies concerning them; b) to reach a stage
where, in framing EU and national policies, greater considera-
tion is taken of the specific needs of young people. The role,
remit and knowledge of
local and regional authorities are
central to achieving these aims, particularly with regard to the
specific strategy outlined in the Communication.

1.3
endorses the objective of strengthening youth policies
in all areas of activity, given that investing in young people is
essential for Europe's future;

2.3
The CoR therefore recommends that the participation
of regional and local authorities in the design, implementation
and monitoring of youth policies be guaranteed at national
level by Member States and at EU level by the Council.

initiatives aimed at

1.4
stresses the need to for all levels of decision-making —
EU, national, regional and local — to work actively to ensure
that youth citizenship can be genuinely harnessed in all poli-
tical contexts in European society. It is particularly important
that
improving quality of professional,
social and family life should be forthcoming, in order to create
the conditions for active citizenship for young people. It is vital
to the EU institutions' long-term integration and legitimacy in
the eyes of the European public for young people to become
involved;

emphasises that real participation by young people can
1.5
only be guaranteed if the EU's proposed initiatives involve local
and regional authorities, youth organisations and all the social
partners who have various degrees of contact with young
people. The success of the initiatives outlined by the Commis-
sion chiefly depends on whether such a consultation process is
properly implemented.

(3) COM(2004) 337 final and COM(2004) 336 final.
(4) OJ C 43 of 18.2.2005, p. 42.
(5) OJ C 22, 24.1.2001, p. 7 and COM(2003) 184 final.
(6) OJ C 121, 30.4.2004, p. 10.
(7) COM(2003) 796 final.
(8) OJ C 121 of 30.4.2004, p. 10.

3. Employment and social inclusion policies

The Committee welcomes the Commission's approach
3.1
to youth employment and social
inclusion policies; young
people are particularly at risk of unemployment, lack of job
security and low wages. In particular, the CoR feels it is impor-
tant
the Lisbon
Strategy, which aims to increase both the quantity and quality
of jobs.

the related aspects of

to fully implement

3.2
The CoR calls on the Commission to propose quantita-
tive targets with regard to combating youth unemployment
(currently 18 % at EU level).

it

is at

the political and administrative level of

While it is the duty of Member States to implement these poli-
cies,
local
government in each State that responsibility lies for carrying
out, developing and managing the processes of
integrating
employment, social and inclusion policies, anti-discrimination
policies and policies combating social exclusion.

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3.3
The shaping of measures designed to proactively recast
and restructure welfare systems in order to increase the scope
for young people to participate in the workplace and in society
in general, requires a radical change in the approach taken to
issues of inclusion/exclusion, in such a way as to gain a global
understanding of the social conditions of youth. The employ-
ment aspect is inextricably linked to a whole range of socially
enabling conditions such as good health, basic education and
society that encourages and nurtures initiative.

3.8
The joint cooperative efforts of the various levels of
government can then be focused on the difficulties young
people have in entering the labour market. These difficulties
are evidenced not merely by unemployment levels but also by
the levels of inactivity among young people, who are neither
studying, nor working, nor even seeking employment — a
particularly serious issue considering that many young people
drop out of compulsory education before the age of eighteen.

3.4
In the case of European employment strategies and
competitiveness measures, national and European action plans
and structural
funds are directed towards the objectives of
employment growth, equal opportunities and social cohesion.
Increasing the adaptability of workers and enterprises
to
economic change and increasing employability levels provides
young people with a testing ground for integrated policies
implemented and integrated mainly at local level.

The CoR calls on the Commission to promote
3.5
measures, by common agreement, fostering the development of
knowledge, skills and of all implementing instruments which
serve to strengthen and capitalise on the work of local and
regional government, with particular reference to:

— exchange of information and good practice (partly through
permanent trans-national networks whose work is effective
and verifiable);

— common and comparable training for the key players in

youth-oriented local and regional policy-making.

3.6
Such action should be taken to increase the effectiveness
of the contribution of local and regional authorities in the
following key areas:

— system of matching supply and demand;

— pathways into the labour market;

— employment measures for social inclusion;

— information and communication campaigns on the institu-
tional set-up of the labour market and on the changing
professions;

— links between training systems and the economic/business

world;

— economic back-up measures for social inclusion.

3.7
The Social Inclusion Strategy can improve the situation
of young people (particularly the most vulnerable) insofar as
there is to be effective integration, at EU and Member State
levels, of the various policies directly implemented by local and
the development of each
regional authorities. To this end,
social inclusion strategy and of the mutual learning employ-
ment programme will benefit from the active and direct invol-
vement of the various local and regional authorities.

The CoR calls on the Commission to encourage the
3.9
inclusion in national
reform programmes of measures to
ensure sufficient financial and organisational support for youth
entrepreneurship projects.

4. Education and training

4.1
The CoR stresses that the European Youth Pact must
not lead to a harmonisation of either the content of education
and training programmes at EU level, or the organisation of
education and training systems, as these areas are the full
responsibility of Member States and in some cases of local and
regional authorities. This in accordance with the provisions of
the Treaty, which limits the Commission's competence to
developing the European dimension in education and developing
exchanges of information and experience on issues common to the
education systems of the Member States.

The CoR hopes that information exchange on best prac-
4.2
tice (and on measures and procedures) developed by individual
Member States will be enhanced and stepped up to ensure the
active and effective participation of local and regional authori-
ties in the process of adapting qualifications systems and frame-
works.

4.3
In particular, each initiative towards the framing of a
European qualifications framework — which will be linked to
and supported by credit transfer and quality assurance arrange-
ments, to the common European principles for identification
and validation of non-formal and informal
learning and to
Europass (the European single framework for the transparency
of diplomas, certificates and competences) — will require the
contribution of local and regional authorities, including in the
monitoring and initiative-assessment stages.

4.4
Naturally, this should also apply to the test phase of
Youthpass — part of the Commission's Europass initiative —
planned for 2006. In this respect, appropriate economic and
procedural instruments will have to be put in place.

4.5
The same procedure should be used in the case of the
Commission's proposal to invite Member States to provide
more transparency and information about employment and
training opportunities, in order to make mobility easier, as part
of the modernisation of employment services and to reinforce
In this
their strategies for removing obstacles to mobility.

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respect, the assessment and implementation of initiatives such
as the European Voluntary Service (EVS) and the information
portals EURES (European job mobility portal), and PLOTEUS
(portal for learning opportunities in Europe) will also be able to
take better account of the needs of young people insofar as
they will incorporate local authorities' assessments and propo-
sals.

4.6
The need to coordinate national education systems, in
order to maximise the free movement of citizens and the devel-
opment of local systems, can also be met by stepping up infor-
mation and good practice exchanges. Specifically, EU support
for transnational dialogue and collaboration can accompany
Member States' efforts towards establishing a comparable vali-
dation framework for non-formal and informal education.

4.7
Close cooperation between EU institutions and local and
regional authorities is needed to help develop the role of
universities as centres of knowledge and cultural exchange for
young Europeans. This can also be achieved if universities are
more firmly anchored within their locality and if they take on
board the principles, methods and styles of partnership more
thoroughly and systematically.

5. Mobility

The CoR welcomes the fact that the Commission docu-
5.1
ment is fully in line with EU policies on the free movement of
workers and the mobility of students, teachers, trainers and
trainees, particularly young people.

5.2
The CoR therefore fully supports the Commission's
stance on the mobility of young people within Europe, for
both training and employment purposes.

5.3
For the purposes of increasing knowledge of Europe and
of the way it operates and of involving young people in poli-
tical life, the CoR calls on the EU institutions to set up a youth
programme based on the United Nations model, which would
involve secondary school pupils and university students in a
genuine simulation of the work of the EU institutions (Euro-
pean Parliament plenary sessions, Council meetings, etc.).

The issue of youth mobility is no longer limited to
5.4
within the EU, but
is increasingly concerned with non-EU
countries. The Committee hopes to see closer cooperation
between the Commission, Member States and local and
regional authorities in efforts to promote the involvement of
young people in voluntary organisations and international soli-
darity. Proper attention should be paid to cross-border mobi-
lity. The EU population currently comprises large minorities
originating from immediate neighbourhoods, whose mobility
should be promoted and contacts harnessed. In this regard,
NGO networks from different Member States, operating in the
same area of development, could provide a testing ground for
support action from local, national and EU levels of govern-
ment, working in synergy with each other.

5.5
As another step towards real mobility of young workers
within the EU, the CoR calls on the Commission and the

Member States to encourage stronger emphasis on language
learning within national programmes.

6. Reconciling work and family life

The Committee would again emphasise the autonomy
6.1
of Member States with regard to the shaping of policies and
methods for promoting the reconciliation of professional and
family life.

6.2
Here too, the Commission's efforts could be directed
towards strengthening and increasing the opportunities for
exchanging and mainstreaming the wealth of
information,
knowledge and experience built up by regional and local autho-
rities, both in the areas referred to by the Commission and in
the promotion of equal opportunities across the generations.

7. Participation and support measures for active citizen-

ship among young people

7.1
The CoR believes that the Commission should operate
a sustained policy of debate and consultation with young
people, aimed at being as effective as possible, on programmes
and initiatives that they have developed themselves,
in the
course of which new procedures could be tested.

7.2
To this end, local and regional authorities, according to
the territorial structure of each Member State, being closest to
local circumstances and the first point of contact for young
people in the process of integration into political, civil and
economic life, must be able to play out their full role, and must
do so effectively. Consultation with local authorities should be
accompanied by measures aimed at:

— stepping up the exchange of experience between decision-
makers and youth policy stakeholders at local level, also to
foster mutual learning;

— incentivising the establishment of permanent networks and
supporting their ongoing exchange and dissemination of
good practice and mutual assistance, aimed at updating
strategies, methods and instruments for promoting youth
participation;

— creating means and instruments for participation that facili-
tate initiatives launched by young people, to enable them to
be involved in projects and activities that they themselves
have promoted.

Transnational dialogue helps to strengthen and stabilise experi-
ence, reducing the risk of it fading too early.

The Committee believes that the Member States should
7.3
run campaigns on participation and how to exercise citizen-
ship, and aim to promote,
through school and training
programmes, awareness of the responsibilities that each indivi-
dual must assume in a democratic society, particularly within
their community. In this context, schools and secondary educa-
tion centres must be viewed as an important common space
where young people can become involved and learn how
democracy works.

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7.4
The CoR hopes that the exchange of good practice
regarding ways of involving young people in local government
will be promoted, as well as mobility initiatives to enhance
knowledge of the various forms of local government, with a
view to fostering better-informed participation in political life.

7.5
The Committee calls on regional and local governments
to promote experiments such as ‘Youth Councils’, which are
not only a mechanism or a means of involving young people
and for entering into dialogue with them, but are also practical
methods of training these young people to be active citizens.

7.6
However, to support local participation and active citi-
zenship, the Commission must encourage the joint transna-
tional drafting of precise criteria and details regarding the
specific objective of participation, i.e., details concerning how it
will work, its scope, who will be involved, etc.

7.7
To eliminate or minimise the risk that only the large
national networks will benefit from youth consultation and
participation,
it will be necessary to actively involve youth
organisation networks operating at local level. To this end, it
would be useful to directly involve local and regional authori-
ties that have developed models within their own area for
programming and administering consultative youth policies.

7.8
The CoR hopes that in implementing the planned initia-
tives (the campaign For Diversity — Against Discrimination, the
European initiative on the health of children and young people,
the public consultation on sport focusing on the educational
and social values of sport for young people, etc.) the Commis-
sion will not underestimate the key role that local and regional
authorities can play in reaching out to, informing, raising the
awareness of, motivating and galvanising groups and indivi-
duals.

The CoR is pleased to note that much of the responsi-
7.9
bility for youth policies lies with Europe's local authorities and
regions. It is crucial, therefore, that local and regional authori-
ties take some share of the responsibility for young people's
education, work and leisure.

8. Support programmes for policies concerning youth

8.1
The Commission and the other EU institutions can play
a key role in creating appropriate operating conditions and
instruments to allow Member States to properly exercise their
rights. The multi-faceted and horizontal nature of youth
problems requires the various levels of government, in accord-
ance with their particular responsibilities and remit, to have an
up-to-date understanding of the issues at hand.

8.2
The CoR therefore calls for the introduction of initia-
tives aimed at developing a coordination mechanism for youth
observatories which, making use of work carried out in other
multi-faceted horizontal areas:

— avoids a proliferation of information systems and platforms;

— integrates and links existing EU databases, so that data on

young people can be developed and cross-referenced;

— exploits and integrates into an EU network, the good prac-
tice gleaned from the observatories on youth issues that is
disseminated within Europe and promoted by local and
regional authorities;

— encourages local observatories to specialise, thus reducing

the risk of wasteful overlapping.

The CoR hopes that

8.3
the specific programmes and
measures for spreading awareness of and exchanging good
practice and for training local players in youth policy will help
to spread a European youth policy culture, thus creating a
European area in which decision-makers can compare notes on
the implementation of youth policies. In particular, the CoR is
willing to work with the Commission on a new campaign to
publicise the content of the European Youth Pact.

8.4
For the youth policies to be effective it is vital to set up
impact and outcome assessment procedures. Given that there
are no established recognised models in the area of youth
policy, assessment would allow experience to be built up,
increase know-how,
reproducible
and produce
models. More specifically, local and regional authorities must
be involved in the assessment procedures.

coherent

the role of

In the development, organisation and implementation of
8.5
each individual programme and measure,
the
regions and of local authorities in the governance of youth
policies must be enhanced, combining the principles of vertical
and horizontal subsidiarity, which is particularly important at
and
level. Consequently, when youth programmes
local
measures are implemented, experience of effective, balanced
and representative partnerships must be
exploited and
promoted.

The CoR stresses the need to mainstream the youth
8.6
dimension in EU policies. In the case of cultural
initiatives,
where in the past some account was taken of the added value
of youth mainstreaming, due consideration must also be given
to the need to direct funds towards and allow scope for initia-
tives implemented by and aimed at young people. We must
also stress the importance of social equality and of equal
opportunities across the generations, partly in consideration of
the risk of social exclusion faced by young people.

8.7
The CoR calls for recognition to be given to the key
role of local and regional authorities in the implementation and
assessment of
the Youth and European Voluntary Service
programmes. The same recommendation applies to the Youth
in Action Programme 2007-2013. Only in this way can we
ensure that the projects are locally based, have the required
impact in the areas concerned and are effectively integrated
into local policies.

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8.8
The CoR believes that youth measures must take into
account other issues, apart from those covered by the European
Youth Pact, which — even if only indirectly — could help
achieve the objectives of the Pact itself. More specifically, we
would highlight as particularly relevant the problem of housing
(given that it concerns policies on employment, mobility and
the reconciliation of work and family life), and other areas of
family welfare and policies on access to credit. Member States
therefore be encouraged to make greater efforts to
must
develop effective reforms in these areas.

8.9
The CoR also calls on the Commission to encourage, in
line with the Lisbon Strategy, the inclusion of measures in
national reform programmes, aimed at:

— stepping up action to counter the growing risk of social
exclusion among young people, in particular by fostering
the development, at all levels, of initiatives for improving
access for all young people to all of their rights (social, poli-
tical and civic) and enabling them to fully exercise those
rights;

— promoting youth policies in national reform programmes
and putting their implementation high on the agenda;

— helping deserving young people from disadvantaged back-
grounds to reach higher levels of education and preventing
them from dropping out;

— provide young people with an appropriate system of social

shock absorbers;

— promote artistry and creativity among young people,

fostering self-employment in these area;

— establishing specific forms of support

to enable young
people in general and in particular young people on low
incomes, those who are unemployed or disabled, young

Brussels, 16 February 2006.

women and young immigrants to participate in social and
political life;

— helping young people who live in rural and disadvantaged
areas to integrate into cultural, social and working life;

— providing incentives for young people to take up voluntary

work.

9. Financial resources

The CoR points out

9.1
consistent with the
complexity of the issues in question, the Commission docu-
ment
is too vague with regard to the financial resources
required for the practical implementation of youth measures.

that,

9.2
It therefore recommends that in the successive phases
of framing EU directives, specific European funds be systemati-
cally allocated, given that such ambitious youth projects, which
resources which
are undoubtedly needed,
Member States themselves often cannot provide. Ultimately, the
CoR urges the Commission to earmark increased funding for
European youth policies.

require financial

The CoR recommends that the process of simplifying
9.3
administrative procedures be continued and stepped up,
in
order to facilitate access to the programmes and initiatives, not
only for local and regional authorities but chiefly for young
people themselves and their representatives. This would make
for reduced costs, simplified processes and shorter implementa-
tion times.

9.4
The CoR hopes that adequately funded programmes
will be introduced to follow on from the measures announced
in the Commission Communication. Aside from the specific
programmes (Youth and EVS), a degree of funding could be
allocated to every EU programme for specific youth measures.

The President

of the Committee of the Regions

Michel DELEBARRE