The project to make 2022 the European Year of Youth (see EUROPE 12791/9) is taking shape: the European Commission published, on Thursday 14 October, its proposal on the subject. It still needs to be approved by MEPs and the EU Council before it can be implemented - ideally starting 1 January of next year.
“The overall objective of the European Year of Youth shall be to boost the efforts of the Union, the Member States, regional and local authorities to honour, support and engage with youth in a post-pandemic perspective”, the Commission details in its proposal.
The institution specifies that the green and digital transitions should be placed at the heart of the approach. It calls for ensuring that young people from disadvantaged backgrounds or “vulnerable groups” are involved in this project and all associated initiatives. Finally, it emphasised that this year should be the occasion to “promote” opportunities, particularly professional ones, for young people.
It then details some of the measures to be implemented - at European, national, regional, local and even partner country levels - to achieve these objectives.
In particular, it suggests that resources be invested in improving existing tools and programmes that enable young people to reach policy makers.
The Commission also calls for studies and research to be undertaken on the situation of young people in the EU and for “harmonised European statistics” to be produced and widely disseminated.
In addition, there are the traditional suggestions: organising conferences, events, information campaigns, promoting programmes, funding opportunities and actions of interest for young people.
The Commission does not go into much more detail, but points out that the EU institutions and the EU27 can also identify other activities and report them to the Commission.
National Coordinators
In addition, each Member State will have to appoint national coordinators to lead the implementation of the European Year activities in their country.
They will also “ensure the active involvement and engagement of young people and youth civil society organisations in implementing the activities of the Year”, the Commission says.
These coordinators will be invited to meetings organised by the Commission, where representatives of the European Parliament may participate as observers.
The Commission also commits to convene meetings of stakeholders and representatives of relevant organisations “to contribute to the co-creation and implementation of the European Year at EU level”.
Expectations
As for the budget allocated to the project, the Commission’s first estimates are around €11 million. In particular, it proposes to dip into the envelopes allocated to Heading 2 (Cohesion, Resilience and Values) and Heading 7 (Public Administration) of the Multiannual Financial Framework.
Within heading 2, it is mainly the “communication” budgets of the Erasmus+ programme (see EUROPE 12622/27) and the European Solidarity Corps (see EUROPE 12622/28) that should be used, despite the warnings of MEPs (see EUROPE 12809/18) and European youth organisations.
“We hope to see the Commission mobilising a budget for the year that will come from a wide variety of sources, not just reallocations from the existing Youth Programmes, which would not represent an increase in investment in young people” reacted Anna Blackwell from the European Youth Forum, on Thursday 14 October.
The organisation also calls for the European Year to pave the way for the adoption of “meaningful policies that leave a lasting impact on young peoples’ lives and futures”.
Its representatives, speaking earlier this week in the European Parliament on the subject, called, in particular, for a ban on unpaid internships in the EU and for more data to be collected on young people and not just economic indicators.
To consult the Commission’s proposal: https://bit.ly/2YSHhip (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)