Brussels, 17/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - Armed with the very latest figures, Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner Laszlo Andor stood before MEPs in Strasbourg on Wednesday 17 September to show how successful his youth employment initiative, and in particular the youth guarantee, has been and how it is bearing fruit. He said that this success would make “youth guarantee … probably the most rapidly implemented” structural reform in Europe.
Andor came to this conclusion in analysing the Commission's accounts. The Commission has received all 34 operational programmes which include resources from the initiative, he stated. Of these schemes, 26 will be adopted in 2014, taking up 85% of the initiative's total budget. There is no room for doubt: “we can therefore ensure - on the basis of the submitted operational programmes - that all the €6.4 billion of the youth employment initiative will be committed in 2014-2015”, he said, adding: “Implementation of the Youth Guarantee is well on track and is already bringing results”.
Good news never seems to come alone, since additional funding is likely to be committed. Andor stated that “on the basis of the draft operational programmes submitted by the member states, we can foresee that over €4 billion of additional European Social Fund resources will be committed to support youth employment”. That would take the budget for “youth” to over €10 billion, as the European Council had promised. How this money is being used on the ground will only be known at the end of September as that is when the Commission will receive information on the measures already adopted by the member states and, especially, the estimated number of young people to benefit from these measures. (JK)