Brussels, 09/01/2008 (Agence Europe) - In a study published on 3 January and entitled “Les Jeunesses face à leur avenir”, the Fondation pour l'innovation politique looks at the concerns of young people in the world. The study was carried out in collaboration with Institut Kairos.
In its conclusions, the study completed under the directorship of Anna Stellinger underlines the fact that work and family remain two fundamental values for young people. Also, the study notes that they “suffer, at varying degrees, from a generalised lack of confidence in the institutions and the elite”. German, British and French youth have the least confidence in national, European and international institutions. And yet, the authors of the survey report, “low confidence in the institutions does not necessarily result in a lack of involvement on the part of young people”.
In their conclusions, the authors of the study stress four imperatives for a public youth policy:
1 - Autonomy of young people must be enhanced, but they must be accompanied. For this, the authors suggest setting up a “one stop shop” with well-trained staff to take the place of the many other provisions open to the young.
2. - Participation must be taken into account in practical terms. “Involvement in an association, in a humanitarian organisation or in local action can, for example, be added to a CV or be calculated as a professional activity opening entitlement to benefits”.
3. - Emphasis must be placed on youth balance. The study mainly criticises the precariousness of jobs offered to young people when they enter active life. It sets out a series of recommendations: emphasis must be placed on early childhood, on the reintegration of parents into the workplace, and on allowing a better articulation between the worlds of studies and work, etc.
4. - A common project. The study highlights the need for youth to have a sense of belonging so that they can believe in their future. The European Union, the study states, is not yet able to provide this sense of belonging which gives a meaning to individual and common action.
The study highlights the imperatives set out in the 2005 European Youth Pact, which called on member states to take greater account of youth-related issues in the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy. The Pact has three strands: employment, and social integration and promotion; education, training and mobility; and the family-work life balance.
The Fondation pour l'innovation politique survey was based on a series of questions put to 22,000 people in 17 countries in Europe, Asia and the United States. In the European Union, data were collected in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom in the last quarter of 2006. (L.B.S.)