EU leaders urged to heed Paris protests

Date: 23/03/06

Youth organisations are calling on EU leaders to heed the violent protests taking place in France when they discuss reducing unemployment among young people at this week's summit (23-24 March).

The EU's government leaders are to agree that, by the end of next year, all young people should be offered a job, apprenticeship or further training within six months of leaving school. The time-frame would be reduced to within 100 days of leaving school by 2010.

The new targets follow the European Youth Pact agreed at last year's spring summit. It said that young people should benefit from "a set of policies and measures forming a fully integrated part" of the Lisbon Agenda, which aims at making the EU more competitive.

But Patricia Sánchez from the European Youth Forum said that governments were not making enough pro-gress on achieving the pact's objectives. "There are probably a lot of good intentions but there is a problem when it comes to implementation," she said.

Violent demonstrations have taken place in France in the past week after Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin defended reforms that would allow employers to dismiss staff under 26 more easily during a two-year trial period. Villepin is arguing that the reforms will help cut France's high rate of joblessness.

But Juliane Bir from the youth wing of the European Trade Union Confederation said that the French protests illustrated that while it was important to provide jobs, "they should not be just any type of jobs" but ones with adequate conditions on pay and social protection.

Danish Socialist MEP Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, chairman of the Party of European Socialists, said: "What Villepin is doing has nothing to do with flexicurity. There is no active labour market policy. He is not introducing new rights at the same time such as a guarantee for under 24-year-olds that they get a job or education."

A recent Eurostat study showed that youth unemployment for people aged 15-24 throughout the EU was 18.5%. This was twice the rate of adult unemployment.

The Austrian presidency will host a conference on the future of youth policy in Vienna next week (28-31 March).

Article anticipates discussions at the Spring European Council, 22-23 March 2006, on how to reduce unemployment among young people in the European Union. EU Heags of State and Government were to agree that, by the end of 2007, all young people should be offered a job, apprenticeship or further training within six months of leaving school. The time-frame would be reduced to within 100 days of leaving school by 2010.

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