Civil society organisations disenchanted with “Youth Guarantee”

European Economic and Social Committee. Labour Market Observatory Meeting in session. (EESC photographic library, 12 June 2013)

European Economic and Social Committee. Labour Market Observatory Meeting. (EESC photographic library, 12 June 2013)

Since 2008, when the EU financial crisis first broke out, 1000 young people join every day the ranks of the unemployed, according to the European Economic and Social Committee. The EESC issued recently a note strongly criticising the Commission’s proposal entitled “Youth Guarantee project”. This proposal was adopted by the European Council of the 27+1 EU leaders last week. It provides €6 billion for a project aimed at making sure that within four months all youths under the age of 25 after leaving school get a job, an apprenticeship or a traineeship. EESC observed that “One third of them are still without prospects a year later. These 6 million young Europeans deserve more from Europe than just 0.7% of its budget and, at the very least, that it should invest massively in their future and therefore in ours”. The European Sting also criticised this new scheme and termed it as ‘futile’. On 29 June the Sting writer George Pepper commented that “Unemployment torments also youths under 29 and in their case the absence of productive employment is even more unbearable. They are men and women without a job probably for years, not being able to start a family. On top of that in the south of Eurozone overall unemployment has reached unseen before levels. Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal run the danger of losing one generation of workers. But the leaders had nothing to say about that.” More backing for more people However the European Economic and Social Committee took one more step forward and proposed something new. Expressing the civil society organisations EESC asked the Commission “to come up with a genuine plan to help young people in these times of crisis, with practical projects…To this end, it is essential that the EU offer more than the 8 billion euro emergency plan when its bank emergency plan was 10 times higher… to make it efficient, the Commission must go further…the scheme should be extended to unemployed young people of up to 30 years of age… These measures should be extended beyond to regions with a youth unemployment rate of up to 25%, in order to have a preventive effect”. In other statements EESC characterised the unemployment of the young ‘a scandal’. Undoubtedly this is a scandal. The reason is that this current economic crisis is not the only cause of this devastating phenomenon. High unemployment of young people did not appear during the last five years. It was there long before the financial crisis of 2008-2009. Greece, Spain, Italy and other EU countries suffered of high youth unemployment long before. So in order to effectively address this problem more money for training is not enough. Deep changes are needed including interventions in the labour market institutionalisation and functioning. Growth and jobs Consequently it seems that the much discussed and desired overall economic growth and the creation of adequate employment opportunities for the young must be addressed at the same time and by the same package of policies. Some billions of EU taxpayers’ money will not be enough to do the job. Those subsidies are functioning also like unemployment benefits and may, to some limited extend, even support unemployment. If the society becomes accustomed to such types of benefits, expectations of more like it in the future may prevent some youngsters from really looking for a job. There is no doubt that generously reducing the unemployment rate is an even more demanding and complicated task for policy makers than introducing measures to attain a weak growth pact. Everybody agrees that the resumption of economic activities in the EU towards the end of this year or the beginning of 2014 will not touch the unemployed even less the young among them.  

Discover more from The European Sting - Critical News & Insights on European Politics, Economy, Foreign Affairs, Business & Technology - europeansting.com

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Interesting reads

© WFP/Maxime Le Lijour A child helps to pitch his family's tent after it collapsed during heavy rain in Gaza.

UN warns civilians remain at risk as airstrikes continue across Gaza

This article is published in association with United Nations. Fresh airstrikes and shelling across the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours have put civilians at renewed risk and compounded months of hardship, the UN said on Tuesday, warning that humanitarian needs continue to outpace access and capacity. UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told journalists at the […]
United Nations Palestinian families are being evicted from the Silwan neighborhood in East Jerusalem.

West Bank: New Israeli measures further erode prospects for two-State solution

This article is published in association with United Nations. UN Secretary-General António Guterres voiced grave concern on Monday over the reported decision by the Israeli security cabinet to authorize a series of administrative and enforcement measures in Areas A and B in the occupied West Bank.  The measures would make it easier for Jewish settlers to take over Palestinian […]
© Unsplash/Hosein Charbaghi A view of Tehran, Iran's capital city.

Guterres welcomes resumption of Iran-US talks

This article is published in association with United Nations. UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday welcomed the resumption of talks between Iran and the United States.  The development follows weeks of tensions surrounding Iran’s nuclear programme and threats of a US military attack.  Delegations headed by US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Iran’s Foreign […]
© State Specialized Enterprise IAEA inspectors help ensure safety at Ukrainian nuclear power plants. .

Ukraine war keeps nuclear safety on a knife-edge, UN watchdog warns

This article is published in association with United Nations. Attacks on Ukraine’s power system highlight how the ongoing war threatens the safety of the country’s nuclear facilities, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned on Friday.  Russian forces have been carrying out strikes on critical infrastructure amid freezing winter temperatures as their full-scale invasion approaches the […]
This article is published in association with United Nations.

Disability-Inclusive Healthcare: Breaking Barriers to Equity

This article was exclusively written for The European Sting by Ms. Mechoiteu Jijou Berny is a seventh-year medical student at Université des Montagnes in Bangangté, West Region of Cameroon. She is affiliated with the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA), cordial partner of The Sting. The opinions expressed in this piece belong strictly to the writer and […]
This article was exclusively written for The European Sting by one of our passionate readers, Mr. Andrew Gardner, a strategic and international business consultant. The opinions expressed within reflect only the writer’s views and not necessarily The European Sting’s position on the issue.

Most European Countries are not yet Prioritising European-Made Arms 

This article was exclusively written for The European Sting by one of our passionate readers, Mr. Andrew Gardner, a strategic and international business consultant. The opinions expressed within reflect only the writer’s views and not necessarily The European Sting’s position on the issue. In October 2025, the European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP) was approved by the European […]
UN chief warns of ‘grave moment’ as final US-Russia nuclear arms treaty expires

UN chief warns of ‘grave moment’ as final US-Russia nuclear arms treaty expires

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned that the expiration of the New START treaty represents a “grave moment” for international peace and security, as binding limits on US and Russian strategic nuclear weapons fall away amid heightened global tensions. In a statement issued as the treaty expired at midnight GMT Thursday, he said the world […]
UN Ukraine A residential building in Ukraine shows signs of damage following overnight attacks.

Ukraine: Civilians injured, miners killed, in separate Russian attacks

This article is published in association with United Nations. A fresh wave of Russian strikes overnight across Ukraine injured several people and left thousands “without heat in the heart of winter,” the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the country said on Tuesday.  Matthias Schmale was “appalled” by the attacks in Dnipro, Kharkiv and Kyiv, noting that many more people in several […]
UN News An injured child waits in the courtyard of Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis.

Gaza: Limited Rafah crossing reopening sparks hope – but also ‘massive trepidation’

This article is published in association with United Nations. The reopening of the Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday after more than a year is being met with both optimism and fear, a senior official with the UN agency that assists the Palestinian people, UNRWA, has said.  The sole border point with Egypt is a […]
WFP Children in Fangak county, Jonglei State eat a cooked meal of sorghum. WFP provides food rations to food insecure families containing sorghum, oil, salt, peas and maize (January 2022).

South Sudan: ‘All the conditions for a human catastrophe are present’

This article is published in association with United Nations. Military tensions in South Sudan are “rapidly expanding” between Government forces and opposition militia as fighting continues in restive Jonglei state. Briefing journalists based at UN Headquarters in New York on Friday, Anita Kiki Gbeho, Officer in Charge of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), said […]
© UNICEF/Oleksii Fili Children's toys are covered in snow outside a residential building in Kyiv during prolonged winter power and heating outages.

World News in Brief: Syria ceasefire welcomed, ‘Olympic truce’, Ukraine’s freezing children

This article is published in association with United Nations. The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria has welcomed a ceasefire agreement between the Syrian Government and the mainly-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), urging all parties to seize the moment to protect civilians and prevent further violations in the country’s northeast.  “We welcome efforts to bring stability […]
This article was exclusively written for The European Sting by Mr. Frank Shao is a Tanzanian medical student. He is affiliated with the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA), cordial partner of The Sting. The opinions expressed in this piece belong strictly to the writer and do not necessarily reflect IFMSA’s view on the topic, nor The European Sting’s one.

Access to Healthcare: is it too much to ask?

This article was exclusively written for The European Sting by Mr. Khalil Al Bilani is a 5th-year medical student at Saint George’s University of Beirut. He is affiliated with the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA), cordial partner of The Sting. The opinions expressed in this piece belong strictly to the writer and do not necessarily reflect […]
UN Photo/Manuel Elías Ramiz Alakbarov (on screen), Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, briefs the Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East.

Potential turning point for Gaza as peace plan enters second phase: UN envoy

This article is published in association with United Nations. The start of a second phase of a stabilisation plan for Gaza offers a potential turning point for the war-ravaged enclave, a senior UN official told the Security Council on Wednesday. Ramiz Alakbarov warned that risks of violence escalating again remain high, while the situation in the […]
This article is published in association with United Nations.

Gaza ceasefire improves aid access, but children still face deadly conditions

The fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip is making a difference to the lives of over a million children, and improving overall access to food – but more aid still needs to enter.  That’s the assessment of two senior officials from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP), speaking on Monday to journalists in New York following a […]

A new blow for UNRWA as headquarters in East Jerusalem ‘set on fire’

© UNRWA Destruction at UNRWA headquarters in East Jerusalem after Israeli authorities sent in bulldozers on 20 January. This article is published in association with United Nations. The head of embattled UN relief agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, has condemned reports that its headquarters in East Jerusalem have been set alight deliberately. It comes after Israeli authorities […]
© UNHCR/Yevheniia Kozun This cinema in Saltivka, Kharkiv, was hit during an earlier strike (file Jan 2026).

‘Cycle of attacks must end’: Lead UN official in Ukraine

This article is published in association with United Nations. The senior UN official in Ukraine, Matthias Schmale, has issued a condemnation of the massive overnight Russian drone and missile strike on several major Ukrainian cities, killing and injuring civilians, and knocking out energy infrastructure amid sub-zero temperatures. The attacks on some of Ukraine’s most important population […]
WHO/P. Virot The flag of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) flies at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

US withdrawal from WHO ‘risks global safety’, agency says in detailed rebuttal

This article is published in association with United Nations. The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a detailed statement regretting the United States decision to leave the UN agency, and declaring that it will leave both the US and the world less safe as a result. The statement, released on Saturday, also includes a rebuttal of […]
© UNOCHA/Ximena Borrazas Kateryna and her two children warm up at a heating point and use rhe available electricity to charge their devices.

Keeping people warm amid hostilities and harsh winter weather in Ukraine

This article is published in association with United Nations. As people in war-torn Ukraine face the coldest winter in more than a decade, authorities and humanitarians are working to help them stay warm, particularly the most vulnerable residents.  Russian forces continue to attack Ukraine’s energy grid, leaving families without electricity and heating as temperatures plummet to -20° Celsius.  Since 2022, the Government has established so-called “Invincibility Points” – located in tents or public […]
UN News A UN emergency shelter set up amid the ruins of Gaza.

Gaza: War crimes probe pledges to continue work for justice and accountability

This article is published in association with United Nations. As President Trump launched the international Board of Peace plan for Gaza on Thursday, top independent rights experts tasked by the UN Human Rights Council with investigating grave abuses linked to the Hamas-Israel war pledged to continue their work seeking justice and accountability for all. “The Board […]

Why don't you drop your comment here?

Go back up

Discover more from The European Sting - Critical News & Insights on European Politics, Economy, Foreign Affairs, Business & Technology - europeansting.com

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Discover more from The European Sting - Critical News & Insights on European Politics, Economy, Foreign Affairs, Business & Technology - europeansting.com

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

The European Sting – Critical News & Insights on European Politics, Economy, Foreign Affairs, Business & Technology – europeansting.com