Social Europe

  • EU Forward Project
  • YouTube
  • Podcast
  • Books
  • Newsletter
  • Membership

If young people ‘are the future’, that needs to start now

Kristof Becker, Tea Jarc and Joscha Wagner 5th November 2021

Next year has been designated ‘European Year of Youth’. The Conference on the Future of Europe must hold out a real prospect for young people.

youth,young people,NEETs,Conference on the Future of Europe
RawPixel.com/shutterstock.com

Young people have suffered most in social and economic terms from the Covid-19 crisis, as the European Commission recognises. Closed schools and training centres, unemployment and social restrictions, lack of material support and exclusion from social-security systems—all this has worsened, directly and drastically, the living situation of many young Europeans.

Yet youth opportunities were already limited in many European countries even before the pandemic. The consequences of the 2008 financial crash still affect the lives of many, especially via persistent youth unemployment.

Attempts have been made to counteract this precariousness, among them the ‘Youth Guarantee’. Promises were made of jobs, internships, training and further education, funded with European Union money. Too rarely, however, did these lead to good work. Instead, the opposite often eventuated—short-term jobs with low pay and no prospects. State-subsidised precarious employment brought a loss of confidence and disillusionment.

Young people want to be well trained, find good jobs, start families and fulfil themselves through work that matches their skills and interests. (Vocational) education and employment policies for young people must take this as a starting point. The ‘any job is better than no job at all’ principle was wrong yesterday and remains wrong today. Effective framework conditions for good and secure jobs are needed.

Collective agreements

This includes, first and foremost, strengthening collective-agreement systems in EU member states. Collective agreements are the key to good work. They have a positive effect on young people—especially if, for example, they regulate the conditions for (initial) training, as a recent study for the European Trade Union Confederation has shown.

Of course, it is up to trade unions themselves to strengthen their organisational power and thus fight for more collective agreements. Legislators are however also called upon to set the frameworks that support and strengthen such systems. This includes, for example, laws on collective bargaining that make the application of a collective agreement mandatory when a public contract is awarded. That the commission has placed the strengthening of collective bargaining at the centre of the initiative for an EU directive on adequate minimum wages is to be welcomed.

Political decision-makers, whether in the member states or at EU level, never tire of emphasising that young people ‘are the future’. Yet ensuring today’s youth have a good future tomorrow entails acting now. Otherwise improvements in the working and educational conditions of young people are postponed, while precarity becomes more entrenched with each passing year.

Clear agenda

This implies a clear agenda for the Conference on the Future of Europe. The conference is to develop recommendations by the spring for the priorities of the EU. For us as young trade unionists these are clear: good jobs, guaranteed training and career prospects must finally be put at the centre of politics.

It is essential that young people have a voice whenever youth-related policies are being developed and decision-makers must have the courage to accept suggestions for improvement. The ‘reinforced’ youth guarantee has however shown that this is unfortunately not the rule. The quality framework called for by trade union youth organisations and the myriad associations in the European Youth Forum has still not been implemented.

The recently-presented commission initiative ALMA (Aim, Learn, Master, Achieve) suggests that this old mistake could be repeated. ALMA is to be launched with funding of €15 million. Young people who do not have a job, do not go to school and do not complete vocational training (NEETs) are to be supported by a mobility programme.

It remains unclear what the offer might look like. The commission speaks of guided ‘work placements’ through which ‘work experience’ is to be gained. The fear is that unpaid, short-term jobs will once again be created: companies, according to the commission, will be free to ‘remunerate the internships’.

Basic quality standards, such as access to social security, rules on maximum daily/weekly hours or health and safety at work, remain unmentioned. It is also unclear who is to bear the costs and responsibility for preparing the participants for the stays abroad. Nor is it evident how these proposals are supposed to improve the labour-market situation of young people left behind.

The commission could at least have included the European Parliament’s demand for a legal framework for an effective and enforceable ban on unpaid internships in its 2022 work programme. But this opportunity was also missed. Against this backdrop, ALMA appears the harbinger of another big disappointment.

Course correction

So there is little time for a course correction. Now is the time to act if the ‘European Year of Youth’—as the commission has designated 2022—is to be more than just another nice strapline which ultimately disappoints.

After all the hardships, after all the lack of perspective young people have had to suffer in the pandemic, today they need guaranteed apprenticeships, a secure start to their careers and real prospects that begin with concrete improvements in the present.

NEETs,youth,young people,Conference on the Future of Europe
Kristof Becker

Kristof Becker is federal youth secretary of the German trade union confederation, der Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB).

Tea Jarc
Tea Jarc

Tea Jarc is  president of the Youth Committee of the European Trade Union Confederation.

Joscha Wagner
Joscha Wagner

Joscha Wagner is an adviser in the federal youth department of the DGB.

Harvard University Press Advertisement

Social Europe Ad - Promoting European social policies

We need your help.

Support Social Europe for less than €5 per month and help keep our content freely accessible to everyone. Your support empowers independent publishing and drives the conversations that matter. Thank you very much!

Social Europe Membership

Click here to become a member

Most Recent Articles

u421983467f bb39 37d5862ca0d5 0 Ending Britain’s “Brief Encounter” with BrexitStefan Stern
u421983485 2 The Future of American Soft PowerJoseph S. Nye
u4219834676d582029 038f 486a 8c2b fe32db91c9b0 2 Trump Can’t Kill the Boom: Why the US Economy Will Roar Despite HimNouriel Roubini
u42198346fb0de2b847 0 How the Billionaire Boom Is Fueling Inequality—and Threatening DemocracyFernanda Balata and Sebastian Mang
u421983441e313714135 0 Why Europe Needs Its Own AI InfrastructureDiane Coyle

Most Popular Articles

startupsgovernment e1744799195663 Governments Are Not StartupsMariana Mazzucato
u421986cbef 2549 4e0c b6c4 b5bb01362b52 0 American SuicideJoschka Fischer
u42198346769d6584 1580 41fe 8c7d 3b9398aa5ec5 1 Why Trump Keeps Winning: The Truth No One AdmitsBo Rothstein
u421983467 a350a084 b098 4970 9834 739dc11b73a5 1 America Is About to Become the Next BrexitJ Bradford DeLong
u4219834676ba1b3a2 b4e1 4c79 960b 6770c60533fa 1 The End of the ‘West’ and Europe’s FutureGuillaume Duval
u421983462e c2ec 4dd2 90a4 b9cfb6856465 1 The Transatlantic Alliance Is Dying—What Comes Next for Europe?Frank Hoffer
u421983467 2a24 4c75 9482 03c99ea44770 3 Trump’s Trade War Tears North America Apart – Could Canada and Mexico Turn to Europe?Malcolm Fairbrother
u4219834676e2a479 85e9 435a bf3f 59c90bfe6225 3 Why Good Business Leaders Tune Out the Trump Noise and Stay FocusedStefan Stern
u42198346 4ba7 b898 27a9d72779f7 1 Confronting the Pandemic’s Toxic Political LegacyJan-Werner Müller
u4219834676574c9 df78 4d38 939b 929d7aea0c20 2 The End of Progess? The Dire Consequences of Trump’s ReturnJoseph Stiglitz

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

Spring Issues

The Spring issue of The Progressive Post is out!


Since President Trump’s inauguration, the US – hitherto the cornerstone of Western security – is destabilising the world order it helped to build. The US security umbrella is apparently closing on Europe, Ukraine finds itself less and less protected, and the traditional defender of free trade is now shutting the door to foreign goods, sending stock markets on a rollercoaster. How will the European Union respond to this dramatic landscape change? .


Among this issue’s highlights, we discuss European defence strategies, assess how the US president's recent announcements will impact international trade and explore the risks  and opportunities that algorithms pose for workers.


READ THE MAGAZINE

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

WSI Report

WSI Minimum Wage Report 2025

The trend towards significant nominal minimum wage increases is continuing this year. In view of falling inflation rates, this translates into a sizeable increase in purchasing power for minimum wage earners in most European countries. The background to this is the implementation of the European Minimum Wage Directive, which has led to a reorientation of minimum wage policy in many countries and is thus boosting the dynamics of minimum wages. Most EU countries are now following the reference values for adequate minimum wages enshrined in the directive, which are 60% of the median wage or 50 % of the average wage. However, for Germany, a structural increase is still necessary to make progress towards an adequate minimum wage.

DOWNLOAD HERE

KU Leuven advertisement

The Politics of Unpaid Work

This new book published by Oxford University Press presents the findings of the multiannual ERC research project “Researching Precariousness Across the Paid/Unpaid Work Continuum”,
led by Valeria Pulignano (KU Leuven), which are very important for the prospects of a more equal Europe.

Unpaid labour is no longer limited to the home or volunteer work. It infiltrates paid jobs, eroding rights and deepening inequality. From freelancers’ extra hours to care workers’ unpaid duties, it sustains precarity and fuels inequity. This book exposes the hidden forces behind unpaid labour and calls for systemic change to confront this pressing issue.

DOWNLOAD HERE FOR FREE

ETUI advertisement

HESA Magazine Cover

What kind of impact is artificial intelligence (AI) having, or likely to have, on the way we work and the conditions we work under? Discover the latest issue of HesaMag, the ETUI’s health and safety magazine, which considers this question from many angles.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Ageing workforce
How are minimum wage levels changing in Europe?

In a new Eurofound Talks podcast episode, host Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound expert Carlos Vacas Soriano about recent changes to minimum wages in Europe and their implications.

Listeners can delve into the intricacies of Europe's minimum wage dynamics and the driving factors behind these shifts. The conversation also highlights the broader effects of minimum wage changes on income inequality and gender equality.

Listen to the episode for free. Also make sure to subscribe to Eurofound Talks so you don’t miss an episode!

LISTEN NOW

Social Europe

Our Mission

Team

Article Submission

Advertisements

Membership

Social Europe Archives

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Miscellaneous

RSS Feed

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641