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Resolution 1828 (2011)
Reversing the sharp decline in youth employment
1. Access to decently remunerated
employment is essential for ensuring sustainable livelihoods, shielding against
poverty and socio-economic exclusion, and enabling the exercise
of fundamental rights.The
effective implementation of the right to work – enshrined in the(revised) European Social Charter
(ETS No. 163) – requires European states to take action through
specific legislation, policies or programmes, not least in order to
minimise the negative consequences and significant cost of unemployment
to society. Although unemployment and precarious work risk undermining
the dignity of every individual concerned and the human progress
of society at large, young people are particularly vulnerable in
this respect.
2. In Europe, youth unemployment remains twice as high as for
the rest of the working-age population and the situation is further
aggravated by the effects of the economic crisis. At the end of
2010, on average one in five young people was unemployed in both
the European Union countries and central and eastern Europe, with unemployment
rates reaching 42% in Spain but staying below 10% in some countries
such as Germany, the Netherlands and Norway. Across the globe, unemployment
affected about 13% of economically active young people – the highest
figure ever recorded by the International Labour Organization.
3. The Parliamentary Assembly is concerned that despite the fact
that young people in Europe today have a better level of education
than their parents and that many European countries are facing labour
shortages in a growing number of sectors, young workers face more
difficulties in entering or re-entering the labour market than the
rest of the population. If governments fail to offer realistic solutions
to youth unemployment, Europe may well have to pay a high price
for a “lost generation” and compromise its competitiveness, security,
social peace and development prospects. With the challenges of globalisation
and the lingering effects of the economic crisis, Europe simply
cannot afford to waste the talents, energy, mobility and creativity
of its youth.
4. The Assembly believes that the main causes of both youth unemployment
or underemployment are the mismatch between the qualifications of
young people and labour market needs, rapidly changing labour market conditions,
structural economic shifts and eroding public spending on integrated
pro-employment strategies. There is therefore a need for adjustment
in public policies at national and European level, with a view to
fully implementing the labour-related provisions of the (revised)
European Social Charter and promoting better qualifications and
skills, more mobility and improved access to job offers and apprenticeship
schemes, as well as a greater interaction between employers, state
employment agencies and young jobseekers.
5. Taking into account the size and the possible implications
of the youth unemployment problem, the Assembly considers that European
policy makers should be required to better integrate young jobseekers before
resorting to bringing in highly skilled workers from non-European
countries. Enhanced inter-generational solidarity and innovative
arrangements in the workplace should enable the smoother transfer
of skills between experienced and young workers, whilst helping
the latter to embrace gainful employment more rapidly and the former
to gradually prepare their retirement.
6. The Assembly is convinced that the European organisations,
notably the European Union and the Council of Europe, can and should
do more to help their member states offer more and better jobs to
the young generation. Other partners, such as the European Bank
for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Council of Europe
Development Bank (CEB), the European Centre for Global Interdependence
and Solidarity (North-South Centre), the European Social Fund (ESF)
and the European Investment Bank (EIB), could usefully supplement
both European and national action programmes.
7. In this context, the Assembly underscores the need for policy
makers in Europe to take more into account the demographic reality,
economic development problems and democratic challenges in Europe’s Mediterranean
neighbourhood where millions of skilled young people, frustrated
at not being able to find work, will do anything to have a better
life and a job, including through emigration. The Assembly sees
an overarching long-term interest for European states to support
the European Union and Council of Europe action – via their respective
neighbourhood policies and strategies for youth, and by involving
the North-South Centre – in order to help southern Mediterranean
countries to fully tap their development potential and offer their
youth a better future.
8. The Assembly therefore calls on the Council of Europe member
states to:
8.1. make youth employment
one of the major priorities of employment policy and initiate immediate measures,
drawing on best European practice in this field;
8.2. foster quality job creation, social dialogue and incentives
for hiring young workers, in particular in the most promising economic
sectors, notably services, and in those facing labour shortages;
8.3. improve interaction between employers, state employment
agencies and young jobseekers;
8.4. strengthen links between educational institutions and
businesses, with a view to a better match between the qualifications
of young people and labour market needs – current and future;
8.5. enhance educational guidance, skills development, careers
advice, employability training and job-search services in order
to smooth the transition of young people from studies to work;
8.6. ensure additional education, training and income support
in order to facilitate access to the labour market and give professional
perspectives to disadvantaged or vulnerable young people, including
those with an immigrant or minority background and those living
in rural or remote areas, and support youth organisations with field
activities in this domain;
8.7. remain vigilant regarding employers’ compliance with obligations
to ensure decent working conditions, regular training and adequate
remuneration for young workers, notably with regard to temporary
employment contracts;
8.8. consider setting up or strengthening, as appropriate,
public-private partnerships which help young people find their first
work experience and on-the-job training;
8.9. put in place fiscal or social incentives for businesses
to employ young people under long-term contracts or contracts considered
to offer the first truly stable and quality jobs for the young people
who occupy them, notably in order to assist the integration of young
people with disabilities and those most at risk of social exclusion
or marginalisation;
8.10. develop systems allowing young people, and in particular
the most vulnerable amongst them, to have access to assisted employment
which represents a true “gateway” between the training and working
spheres;
8.11. study the policies and practices, notably “flexicurity”
arrangements, of countries that have the most successful youth employment
rates, with a view to learning how to reduce youth unemployment
at home;
8.12. support, not least through voluntary contributions, the
Council of Europe projects aimed at promoting youth employment,
mobility, language skills and other skills development;
8.13. promote access for the young generation to self-employment,
microcredit schemes and advisory services for entrepreneurship;
8.14. encourage multilateral development banks, in particular
the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Bank for Reconstruction
and Development (EBRD) and the Council of Europe Development Bank
(CEB), and other relevant institutions, such as the European Centre
for Global Interdependence and Solidarity (North-South Centre),
to contribute to the implementation of the European Union and Council
of Europe neighbourhood policies, in particular through projects
aimed at job creation and youth employment in southern Mediterranean
countries.
9. The Assembly invites national parliaments of the Council of
Europe member states to consider holding annual debates on youth
problems, including youth employment challenges, and to study the
possibility of proposing youth action plans to tackle the problems
thus identified.