Paris, 12/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - A conference on youth employment, held in Paris on Tuesday 12 November, took on the air of a European summit. All the EU member states were represented, with no fewer than 24 heads of state, along with the heads of European institutions, to discuss best national practice in tackling youth unemployment and the best way to use European funding over the next two years to back this. Three main areas of action were identified - training, work experience placements and entrepreneurship. After the conference, the French president, François Hollande, said there was now a timetable, priorities and financial instruments. One notable absentee in Paris was the British prime minister, David Cameron.
Following on from the previous conference on this theme, in Berlin on 3 July 2013, the Paris conference was divided into four sections in the attempt to find the best solutions for tackling youth unemployment in each member state, with an eye to what the neighbouring countries are doing. The battle is now more at national than EU level, in fact. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said after the conference that the holding of a summit like this in addition to the formal EU conferences, was justified by the national nature of the problem and its solutions. Most EU funds for 2014-2020 have already been set up, like the Youth Jobs Initiative and its Youth Guarantee, so nothing new will be forthcoming in terms of EU funds. France said that, if all the EU funding available relating to young people in any way are aggregated, almost €45 billion will be available from the start of 2013 to the end of 2015.
The Paris conference started with a meeting between the French and German social partners (trade unions and employers) and the two country's labour ministers, Michel Sapin and Ursula von der Leyen. The two countries have very different approaches to social policy. The day before the conference, Sapin talked of the old dream of a cluster of common social rights emerging at EU level, including a minimum wage. The reticence of the European Commission to bring this up at the European Summit and the controversy about a national minimum wage in Germany means that the French dream will remain just that. Another underlying disagreement at the conference is how to approach youth employment. France recommends coaching measures and funded contracts, but Germany says that it is structural reform of the labour market and education systems that are the key way to find work for the 5.58 million young people in Europe. The conference ended up recommending a little of one and a little of the other.
The second point on the conference agenda was a meeting of public employment services in the EU to examine the commitments made at the Berlin summit. The heads of the member states' employment services had lunch with the European labour ministers, social partners and the presidents of the big three EU institutions, Herman Van Rompuy, José Manuel Barroso and Martin Schulz. The conference host, François Hollande, then met a delegation of young people from the European Youth Forum. During the afternoon, 24 heads of state, accompanied by their labour ministers and the labour ministers of the United Kingdom, Malta and the Czech Republic, along with the presidents of the big three EU institutions and the European Investment Bank began the final part of the conference, where Paris and Berlin briefed them on what had happened that morning, and then seven heads of state described measures in their own countries. The meeting closed with an exchange of views among all participants.
The conferences in Berlin and Paris enabled consensus to be reached on three key areas of action which member states are free to introduce: (1) training and apprenticeship (improving guidance, making the most of professional training systems, developing sandwich courses and drawing up a list of jobs with promising future prospects, a list that will be updated every two years); (2) work experience placements (expanding personalised coaching, increasing the supply of additional training and re-training, and encouraging targeted recruitment aid); and (3) setting up one's own company (simplifying the paperwork and making it easier to access finance). There is nothing new about the aims and objectives, but the Berlin and Paris conferences have generated greater clarity, commented Barroso. (JK/transl.fl)