When voting in favour of a European Parliament resolution on the Youth
Guarantee, Labour MEP Alfred Sant argued that, given the track record of the
Guarantee, the European Council should revise its current inexplicable plans to
dilute the strength of the Guarantee.
The Guarantee should instead be reinforced by providing it with the necessary
funds from the EU budget while ensuring they are properly spent.
The European Parliament resolution is part of a debate amongst EU institutions
aiming to strengthen the Youth Guarantee and calls for binding criteria for
quality job and traineeship offers. The EU’s Youth Guarantee has in the past
helped millions of young citizens to make it into the job market.
Following a campaign by the Party of European Socialists and the Socialists and
Democrats Group in the European Parliament, the EU Youth Guarantee was
established to ensure that every young person under 30 receives a good-
quality offer of a job, training, internship or apprenticeship within four months
of registering with a job centre.
In an explanation of his vote, Alfred Sant told the European Parliament that
youth unemployment has long been a grave problem in Europe particularly in
Southern Europe and the COVID-19 pandemic has further created huge
obstacles for young people when looking for meaningful employment.
“Moreover, in the interest of maintaining the right social conditions around
labour markets and while taking into account the current market dynamics,
European decision makers should seek to eliminate all forms of social
dumping” Alfred Sant said.
He noted that the application of stricter rules in this area would serve to
enhance job opportunities for European youths.
More than 16 million young people have entered national Youth Guarantee
schemes since 2014 and 24 million of them have taken up an offer of
employment, training, internship or apprenticeship.
The Resolution was adopted with 574 votes in favour, 77 against and 43
abstentions.
