Brussels, 05/02/2013 (Agence Europe) -Will the European Commission's recommendation about setting up a “Youth Guarantee” be unanimously accepted by the Council of Ministers? The answer will be known on Friday 8 February after an informal meeting of EU employment and social affairs ministers in Dublin. The Irish Presidency of the Council of Ministers is not attempting to hide its aim of arranging a discussion to pave the way for the adoption of the Commission's recommendation at a meeting in Brussels at the end of the month.
Unveiled in December 2012 (see EUROPE 10745), the European Commission's proposal was recently backed by the Committee of the Regions. Will the Council of Ministers follow suit? Quite possibly, going by existing practices across Europe. A youth guarantee mechanism is in existance in Sweden, the United Kiongdom and Romania, and also in two countries whose ideas were followed by the Commission, namely Austria and Finland. The Greek, Bulgarian and French governments have recently announced new measures in a similiar direction.
Agreement on the idea may be forthcoming, but the devil, as always, will be in the details. The views taken by two national parliaments (Cyprus and Lithuania) give an indication of the level of disagreement that may emerge about flexibility and timing. The Cypriot parliament says the Commission's recommendation is too prescriptive and does not take national specificities into account, particularly in this time of budget austerity. Likewise, a report from the Lithuanian parliament warns that fully integrating the Youth Guarantee initiative in 2013 may be difficult because extra measures and cash would be needed to implement it.
For both countries, the sticking point seems to be money. Even EU Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Commissioner Laszlo Andor admits the Youth Guarantee will not come cheap (see EUROPE 10769). The idea was for it to be partly financed from from the European Social Fund, but it is not certain that there will be enough European funding available, or at least not the amount some countries were hoping for. This uncertainty will not be lifted at the meeting in Dublin on Friday, but possibly at another meeting some 900 kilometres to the south, in the European Summit on the Multiannual Financial Framework (budget for 2014-2020) that is scheduled to end on Friday 8 February. (JK/transl.fl)