On 29 November a delegation of 30 Spanish Socialist Youth members travelled to Brussels to debate the campaign for a European Youth Guarantee with Zita Gurmai, PES Women President, and with David Cordonnier, MJS Belgium President.

In Spain youth unemployment touches one young person out of two. Spanish Socialist Youth branches engaged in the campaign for a European Youth Guarantee since its very start and today they pledged to keep building the pressure on national leaders to implement such a policy.

During the meeting, Zita Gurmai addressed the issue of gender inequality in the labour market. She explained that in member states harder hit by the crisis, women are more harshly affected by unemployment, which can lead to long-term inequalities between women and men when it comes to participation on the labour market and pay gap. In this context, it is essential to guarantee an equal access for women and men to the labour market from a young age and in all sectors and educational curricula, in order to prevent bigger gaps at a later stage. She defended a European Youth Guarantee as a key instrument to achieve this goal, while simultaneously reducing global youth unemployment rates.

PES Women President also mentioned that on December 5^th the Council is due to discuss the initiative of a European Youth Guarantee and agree on a timeframe in February. She encouraged the participants to spread the word about the campaign in order to build a broad-base support for a EU-wide guarantee and make sure the Commission’s proposal is adopted by Member States.

At the end of the meeting, Spanish Socialist Youth international policy secretary Marta Alcalde Gea and MJS President David Cordonnier handed to Mrs. Gurmai hundreds of signatures collected in the frame of the “Rise up!” campaign. “Rise up” is a petition created by socialist and social democrat youth organizations calling on the European Council to change European eco­nomic policy of austerity and to build a Europe of jobs, democ­racy and ecology.