Youth unemployment: request for information on the results achieved by the ‘action teams’ and the reprogramming of European funds for youth employment
24.7.2012
Question for written answer E-007432/2012
to the Commission
Rule 117
Roberta Angelilli (PPE) , Jim Higgins (PPE) , Othmar Karas (PPE) , Georgios Papastamkos (PPE) , Alejo Vidal-Quadras (PPE) , László Surján (PPE) , Simon Busuttil (PPE) , Danuta Maria Hübner (PPE) , Elmar Brok (PPE) , Marietta Giannakou (PPE) , Ioannis Kasoulides (PPE) , Andrey Kovatchev (PPE) , Jean-Paul Gauzès (PPE) , Mariya Gabriel (PPE) , Gay Mitchell (PPE) , Pablo Zalba Bidegain (PPE) , Kinga Gál (PPE) , Elena Băsescu (PPE) , Elisabeth Morin-Chartier (PPE) , Gabriele Albertini (PPE) , Elena Oana Antonescu (PPE) , Zoltán Bagó (PPE) , Erik Bánki (PPE) , Paolo Bartolozzi (PPE) , Regina Bastos (PPE) , Heinz K. Becker (PPE) , Ivo Belet (PPE) , Philippe Boulland (PPE) , Antonio Cancian (PPE) , Maria Da Graça Carvalho (PPE) , Anna Maria Corazza Bildt (PPE) , Rachida Dati (PPE) , Rosa Estaràs Ferragut (PPE) , Santiago Fisas Ayxela (PPE) , Cristina Gutiérrez-Cortines (PPE) , Małgorzata Handzlik (PPE) , Jolanta Emilia Hibner (PPE) , Brice Hortefeux (PPE) , Lívia Járóka (PPE) , Danuta Jazłowiecka (PPE) , Sidonia Elżbieta Jędrzejewska (PPE) , Teresa Jiménez-Becerril Barrio (PPE) , Romana Jordan (PPE) , Filip Kaczmarek (PPE) , Krišjānis Kariņš (PPE) , Seán Kelly (PPE) , Ádám Kósa (PPE) , Georgios Koumoutsakos (PPE) , Jan Kozłowski (PPE) , Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou (PPE) , Eduard Kukan (PPE) , Giovanni La Via (PPE) , Veronica Lope Fontagné (PPE) , Petru Constantin Luhan (PPE) , Barbara Matera (PPE) , Véronique Mathieu (PPE) , Zofija Mazej Kukovič (PPE) , Mairead McGuinness (PPE) , Nadezhda Neynsky (PPE) , Rareş-Lucian Niculescu (PPE) , Eva Ortiz Vilella (PPE) , Georgios Papanikolaou (PPE) , Hubert Pirker (PPE) , Konstantinos Poupakis (PPE) , Zuzana Roithová (PPE) , Licia Ronzulli (PPE) , Kārlis Šadurskis (PPE) , Potito Salatto (PPE) , Csaba Sógor (PPE) , Peter Šťastný (PPE) , Róża Gräfin von Thun und Hohenstein (PPE) , Ioannis A. Tsoukalas (PPE) , Vladimir Urutchev (PPE) , Dominique Vlasto (PPE) , Iuliu Winkler (PPE) , Anna Záborská (PPE) and Paweł Zalewski (PPE)
During the informal European Council meeting held on 30 January 2012, the Commission set up eight ‘action teams’ to be sent to Member States with high rates of youth unemployment (Italy, Spain, Greece, Slovakia, Lithuania, Portugal, Latvia and Ireland) and announced that EUR 82 billion in as-yet-unspent European funds would be used to support measures designed to combat youth unemployment, boost growth and support SMEs. Between February and May 2012, Commission experts went to the eight Member States in question for consultations. On 23 May 2012 Commission President Barroso presented the first results achieved by the ‘action teams’, stating that EUR 7.3 billion in funds had already been earmarked for accelerated implementation or reassigned.
Given that the available data are unclear because they are incomplete and not sufficiently detailed, and that the Commission and Parliament on several occasions stressed the need for the active and concrete involvement of young people in decision-making, can the Commission say:
- 1.Whether, in addition to the document presented by President Barroso on 23 May 2012, more accurate and detailed documents and data are available on funded and pending projects?
- 2.Whether an analysis of good practices has been carried out, and a strategy developed for long-term action to boost youth employment?
- 3.Whether and when youth organisations were involved — and how they were consulted — as provided for in the Commission communication entitled ‘Youth Opportunities Initiative’ and in Parliament’s resolution of 24 May 2012 on the Youth Opportunities Initiative?
- 4.What were the outcomes of, and the decisions made during, the consultations with the other seven countries with an unemployment rate above the EU average (Bulgaria, Cyprus, France, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden)?
OJ C 270 E, 19/09/2013