Zes miljard beschikbaar uit Europees Sociaal Fonds om jeugdwerkloosheid tegen te gaan (en)

On November 14-15th in Vilnius the Lithuanian Presidency organises a conference “Tackling youth unemployment in Europe: building a better future for young people“. The Conference aims at exploring the effectiveness of use of the European Social Fund, addressing the challenge of high youth unemployment across Europe.

“Tackling of youth employment throughout the Europe is one of the most important priorities of European Union. Already at the beginning of 2013 the European Council agreed to support the Youth Employment Initiative. In order to reinforce and accelerate the implementation of measures for Youth Employment Package, it has offered to foresee the guarantees for young people throughout the European Union. Consequently, it is very important to mention that under Youth Guarantees, all young people under the age of 25 should receive an offer of employment, continued education, apprenticeship or traineeship within 4 months of becoming unemployed or leaving formal education”, - says Algimanta Pabedinskienė, the Minister of Social Security and Labour.

6 billion Euros of the European Social Fund are to be spent for the implementation of measures for Youth Employment Initiative in the regions where the highest youth unemployment exceeds 25 percent.

According to the Minister Algimanta Pabedinskienė, some of the Member States already have experience with Youth Guarantees. “Effectiveness of Youth Guarantees is linked to the capacity of Public Employment Services to effectively administer labour market measures, the capacity to establish cooperative arrangements with other stakeholders, including youth organisations“, - states Algimanta Pabedinskienė.

At the Conference the working groups are expected to discuss what should be done to prevent early school leaving, how to promote work with groups of social exclusion, to improve the quality of youth work skills, to promote qualified traineeship, apprenticeship, youth entrepreneurship and support to business start-ups.

Participants will have an opportunity to exchange plans and practices at working groups and during the project exhibition on how they can use European Social Fund means for the innovative and sustainable policy approaches and support schemes to fund.

Andriana Sukova-Tosheva, Director, Directorate E, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, European Commission, Jiří Plecitý, Member of the Cabinet of Commissioner L. Andor, responsible for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Zoltan Kazatsay, Deputy Director-General, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, European Commission, employees of other institutions, working in the field of the implementation of the ESF, the staff of the employment services, non-governmental organizations, representatives of the social partners will participate at the event.