In this European Year of Youth 2022, the European Parliament has come out in favour of a European legal framework “to ensure fair remuneration for traineeships and apprenticeships in order to avoid exploitative practices” by adopting a motion for a resolution on youth empowerment on Thursday 17 February (580 votes in favour, 57 against, 55 abstentions).
The Parliament calls on Member States to facilitate young people’s access to quality paid traineeships and apprenticeships and “condemns the practice of unpaid traineeships as a form of exploitation of young workers and a violation of their rights”.
However, it did not go so far as to call for a ban on unpaid traineeships, rejecting identical amendments from the S&D and Greens/EFA groups (293 votes in favour, 377 against, 26 abstentions) and The Left group (290 votes in favour, 386 against, 20 abstentions). A majority of the EPP, Renew Europe, Identity and Democracy and ECR groups opposed these amendments.
The day before, during the plenary debate, Dragoş Pîslaru (Renew Europe, Romania) said the EU should act to help young people recover from the 2 years lost to the Covid-19 pandemic. He mentioned the ‘One Youth, One Europe’ commitment that his group had unveiled the same day, which lists concrete actions to be taken in order to facilitate the professional integration and mobility of young people.
See the ‘One Youth, One Europe’ commitment: https://aeur.eu/f/dr
In the resolution Pîslaru added, we also call for the creation of a ‘hotline’ to respond to emergencies related to young people’s mental health, a real European civic service, a European culture pass, a European Youth Mobility Card (which would integrate the Interrail pass and free public transport in EU capitals), a European study loan and a European Youth Office for Coordination.
On behalf of the French Presidency of the EU Council, the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, reiterated the idea put forward by the French President to set up “a European civic service”.
The European Commissioner for the Promotion of the European Way of Life, Margarítis Schinás, spoke about the future ALMA mobility programme for unemployed young people not in education or training, announced last September (see EUROPE 12791/9).
The initiative, which will be implemented under the European Social Fund Plus, will be “an Erasmus for disadvantaged young Europeans aged 18 to 30” and it is these young people we want to put forward by helping them to learn and train in another country, Mr Schinás said. On mental health, he mentioned the creation of an expert group that will look at how to improve well-being in schools and learning environments.
See the resolution: https://bit.ly/3GRWKz3 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)