Information on measures to tackle youth unemployment

17.12.2012

Question for written answer E-011514-12
to the Commission
Rule 117
Roberta Angelilli (PPE) , Jacek Protasiewicz (PPE) , Teresa Jiménez-Becerril Barrio (PPE) , Elena Băsescu (PPE) , Georgios Papanikolaou (PPE) , Heinz K. Becker (PPE) , Nuno Melo (PPE) , Danuta Jazłowiecka (PPE) , Licia Ronzulli (PPE) , Anna Záborská (PPE) , Maria do Céu Patrão Neves (PPE) , Filip Kaczmarek (PPE) , Maria Da Graça Carvalho (PPE) , Sari Essayah (PPE) , Mariya Gabriel (PPE) , Burkhard Balz (PPE) , Potito Salatto (PPE) , Clemente Mastella (PPE) , Jan Kozłowski (PPE) , Lara Comi (PPE) , Zoltán Bagó (PPE) , Jim Higgins (PPE) , Mário David (PPE) , Eduard Kukan (PPE) , Sergio Paolo Francesco Silvestris (PPE) , José Manuel Fernandes (PPE) , Nuno Teixeira (PPE) , Georgios Papastamkos (PPE) , Carlo Fidanza (PPE) , Piotr Borys (PPE) , Iva Zanicchi (PPE) , Joanna Katarzyna Skrzydlewska (PPE) , József Szájer (PPE) , Antonio Cancian (PPE) , Zofija Mazej Kukovič (PPE) , Jarosław Leszek Wałęsa (PPE) , Eva Ortiz Vilella (PPE) , Anne Delvaux (PPE) , Giovanni La Via (PPE) , Erminia Mazzoni (PPE) , Georges Bach (PPE) , Lívia Járóka (PPE) , Konstantinos Poupakis (PPE) , Svetoslav Hristov Malinov (PPE) , Gabriel Mato Adrover (PPE) , Marco Scurria (PPE) , Ioannis A. Tsoukalas (PPE) , Sidonia Elżbieta Jędrzejewska (PPE) , Philippe Boulland (PPE) , Monica Luisa Macovei (PPE) , Mario Mauro (PPE) , Esther Herranz García (PPE) , Amalia Sartori (PPE) , Czesław Adam Siekierski (PPE) , Inese Vaidere (PPE) , Georgios Koumoutsakos (PPE) , Juan Andrés Naranjo Escobar (PPE) , María Auxiliadora Correa Zamora (PPE) , Paolo Bartolozzi (PPE) , Paweł Zalewski (PPE) , Małgorzata Handzlik (PPE) , Salvador Garriga Polledo (PPE) , Edit Bauer (PPE) , Lena Kolarska-Bobińska (PPE) , Marietta Giannakou (PPE) , Salvador Sedó i Alabart (PPE) , László Surján (PPE) , Regina Bastos (PPE) , Pablo Arias Echeverría (PPE) , Elisabeth Köstinger (PPE) , Elena Oana Antonescu (PPE) , Salvatore Tatarella (PPE) , Rosa Estaràs Ferragut (PPE) , Luis de Grandes Pascual (PPE) , Astrid Lulling (PPE) , Kinga Gál (PPE) , Peter Šťastný (PPE) , Radvilė Mo (null)

On 30 January 2012, during the informal summit of the European Council, the Commission set up eight ‘action teams’ that were sent to the eight EU countries with the highest rates of youth unemployment (Italy, Spain, Greece, Slovakia, Lithuania, Portugal, Latvia and Ireland), announcing, at the same time, that EUR 82 billion of unassigned European funds were to be committed to initiatives for youth unemployment. On 23 May 2012 President Barroso presented the first results of the work of the ‘action teams’. Of the EU funds committed, about EUR 7.3 billion had been channelled through this initiative for accelerated delivery or reallocation, to the benefit of at least 460 000 young people and 56 000 SMEs.

Can the Commission state

— whether an updated review of the work of the ‘action teams’, and of the consultations with the other seven countries with a youth unemployment rate above the EU average (Bulgaria, Cyprus, France, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden), is available,

— whether more precise and recent information is available on funded projects and on projects undergoing approval, including any that might concern possible changes to operational programmes,

— whether an analysis has been made of good practices, and whether a long-term action strategy for youth employment has been formulated,

— whether any youth organisation has been consulted, as requested in the Commission’s Communication proposing a ‘Youth Opportunities Initiative’ and in Parliament’s resolution of 24 May 2012 on youth opportunities, and, if so, when, since it does not seem as if any such action has been taken so far,

— what measures President Barroso was referring to in his speech on the State of the Union — when he mentioned, among other things, the launch of a ‘youth package’ to create a youth guarantee scheme and a quality framework for vocational training — and when we will see them,

— whether the results of the ‘quality framework to facilitate vocational training’ consultation are available,

— how the ‘Youth Opportunities Initiative’ is progressing and what measures have been taken?

OJ C 340 E, 21/11/2013