Young People in Europe at Risk of Social Exclusion and Poverty

The recently released 2012 Youth Development plan showed that there is still a lot to be done for youth employment in the European Union. And that goes for Ireland, too. 

The Youth Development Plan is part of the EU Youth Strategy (2010 – 2018), and is published every three years to provide an analysis of young people’s situation on the European job market; it also describes how the EU strategy is implemented. The results of the report are drawn from government input as well as from consultation with young people in the member states.

This year’s report stressed that young people feel and experience the difficult situation of the European economy more than others, and that much more must be done to support them. It also underlines that austerity alone will not create the soil on which a healthy labour market will grow. Labour mobility, especially, has potential for improvement in that respect, the report stated.

The situation is most severe in Greece and Spain. Youth unemployment there was the highest in Europe in 2011, at 53.8 per cent and 52.9 per cent respectively, while the Euro 27 average is 22.5 per cent. Ireland, however, if not in the spotlight of negative economic publicity anymore, seems better off then than Spain and Greece, but only just. In 2011, youth unemployment was at 30.5 per cent and, together with Italy, Ireland had the fourth highest youth unemployment. At least Ireland seems to be more stable than Spain and Greece, as the unemployment rate rose by only around two per cent here, whereas it rose by nearly 5 per cent and 12 per cent in Spain and Greece respectively. 

“I am deeply concerned by the effects of the crisis on young people. Far too many of them are at risk of social exclusion and poverty,” said Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth in a statement.

The European Union, however, seems positive that the EU Youth Strategy will eventually bear fruit. All member states have implemented instruments to “promote active citizenship, social inclusion and solidarity” as well as enabling young people to increase their job opportunities, as a European Commission Press release states. The report also claims as a success the fact that “levels of youth participation in associations and social movements have remained high.”

But the Commission also offers more practical and direct help for Ireland and seven other countries with above average youth unemployment: money. It encouraged the governments in Dublin, Athens, and Madrid to make better use of the European Social fund. Up to now the fund has reallocated 7.3 billion Euro to the eight countries with underemployed young generations. 

The next step in the European programme will be to massively increase University efforts in the Erasmus programme – a scheme that allows students to study at another university for one year. The new version will be called “Erasmus for All” and have a massive 19 billion euro budget. Its aim is to allow 5 million people to gain experience abroad at 115.000 different institutions across the continent. What is new is that more than ever will also focus on non-university exchanges. 

It will be interesting to see how it will work in Ireland, where universities saw themselves forced to withdraw to an extent from their extensive exchange commitment in the Erasmus-Programme when Government support was cut in the course of the financial difficulties. Erasmus students don’t pay to study in Ireland, whereas oversees students do. And by much, much more than native or European students.

Another new project that shall help create more jobs and increase labour mobility is the job platform EURES, which will match jobs and applicants from all over the European Union.

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