Original article

Dublin Labour MEP, Emer Costello, has welcomed today's EU proposal for a European Youth Guarantee, saying that if adopted by EU leaders during the Irish Presidency and supported by dedicated EU resources, it could help to reduce the historically high rates of youth unemployment in Ireland and Europe as a whole.

Original article

Dublin Labour MEP, Emer Costello, has launched a campaign for a European 'Youth Guarantee' to deal with rising youth unemployment, stating that the Youth Guarantee approach pioneered by Austria and Denmark could help reduce Ireland's historically high youth unemployment levels and should be taken up by the EU as a whole.

The President of the Party of European Socialists (PES), Sergei Stanishev, has congratulated Irish Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton on her statement on a European Youth Guarantee. As reported in the Irish media, Ms. Burton said that she would make a European Youth Guarantee a priority for the Irish Presidency of the EU, which starts in January 2013. According to the reports, Ms Burton said she would chair a meeting with the 27 European social protection ministers, in the spring, and would push to get concrete commitments.

Original article

Dublin Labour MEP Emer Costello has welcomed the announcement by the Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton T.D. that the Government is to advance plans during Ireland's EU Presidency next year for a European Youth Guarantee to help reduce youth unemployment.

Under this idea, within four months of becoming unemployed, a young person would be guaranteed a job offer, an apprenticeship, training or combined work and training.

Original text

The government will use its presidency of the European Union next year to advance plans for a “youth guarantee” scheme that would ensure young people who are out of work will automatically be directed into employment, education or training.

Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton has said she will use the presidency, from January next year, to help deliver proposals for the new scheme, which would be targeted at any under-25s who are out of work.

Campaign update n°2

Last week we told you about the progress of the European Youth Guarantee campaign over the summer.

The support for a European Youth Guarantee is growing by the day and campaigners like you are now organizing events all over Europe to promote it:

• In Spain and in Portugal, PSOE and PS presented in their national parliaments draft resolutions to make the Youth Guarantee a reality in their countries. The conservative governments, stuck on their austerity ways, rejected these progressive proposals, but our campaigners won’t give up; they will present the Youth Guarantee to trade unions, NGOs and civil society associations in order to create public pressure to implement it.
• In Ireland, on September  8^th, Labour Youth gathered numerous of participants in a seminar to discuss how to reverse the high level of youth unemployment (1 out of 3 young people can’t find a job) and stop the emigration of youth. The speakers - including Minister for Education and Skills Ruairi Quinn, Emer Costello MEP and John Lyons MP - and the audience concluded that a Youth Guarantee can be part of the solution and make a difference to the lives of young people in Ireland.

• Also on September  8^th Bulgarian campaigners organized a meeting near Plovdiv, the second biggest city of Bulgaria. Among the conclusions, the participants proposed that the years spent studying are taken into account for pension purposes.

At EU level, thanks to the commitment of Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, Laszlo Andor, the European Commission has put forward a concrete funding opportunity to introduce youth guarantees.

You too can join the thousands of campaigners calling for a European Youth Guarantee. Remember, your support is key to tackle youth unemployment in Europe. 

Check back next week, when we will have news on developments on France, UK, Finland and EU Committee of the Regions.

COMING UP
27^th September 
10.30-18.30 - PES Women Annual Conference - Combating Young Women's Unemployment

29^th September 
13h00-14h30 - Youth Unemployment Campaign meeting (as part of PES Congress)

Original article. 

Labour Youth are proud to campaign for the PES/ECOSY proposal for a European Youth Guarantee.  This is an excellent proposal, which is now being considered by the European Commission.  Under the proposed Youth Guarantee, every young person in Europe will be offered a job, further education or a work-related internship following four months of unemployment.

On 8 September, Labour Youth, Emer Costello MEP and John Lyons TD held a public meeting in Dublin on the European Youth Guarantee.

Last Saturday, September 8th, I hosted a seminar on the 'Youth Guarantee' in conjunction with Labour Youth and John Lyons TD.

The Youth Guarantee is a straight forward solution to the growing social problem of youth unemployment. It would offer every young person a job, further education or work-focused training at the latest four months after leaving education or after becoming unemployed.

Over thirty percent youth unemployment in Ireland, a hemorrhage of Irish youth emigrating from our country in search of work and a government struggling to restore the Irish economy in the face of painful austerity policies imposed by the EU, ECB and IMF. This has led to an unprecedented level of cynicism and distrust of politics in Ireland and a broad feeling that there is little that we can do to improve the life chances of our young people at this time.