From November 11th to the 13th, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD or OCDE in French) headquarters in Paris hosted the Youth Summit on Youth Employment, which took place parallel to the Paris Intergovernmental Summit of the EU Members States on the same issue.

As member of the Comité Directeur of AEGEE-Europe, I was able to represent our organization at this summit thanks to the invitation issued by the European Youth Forum (YFJ). Unfortunately, no members from our Youth (un)Employment project could come, because at the same time, preparations for the Y-Vote convention on Youth Employment were taking place in Agrigento.

The Youth Summit in Paris was special since, for the first time, it brought the two main non-governmental actors in the field of employment for young people together: trade unions and national youth councils. Why they had not managed to sit down to draft a common strategy, when the destruction of jobs in Europe is a problem for several years already, is still a mystery to me.

The discussions covered different fields, among which a big highlight was an update on implementation of the Youth Guarantee Scheme established by the European Union. The Youth Guarantee aims to provide all young Europeans with a job, a traineeship or an education opportunity within the next four months after ending studies or finishing their contract. Even if far from the estimation of 21 billion Euros that are needed for the scheme, the 6 billion Euros provided by the EU can have a big impact as a first step. Therefore, it was quite disheartening to see that the preparations are quite behind schedule in many member states, specially among those with higher youth unemployment rates. They are supposed to be ready by the end of December.

When implementing the Scheme, we saw how some countries clearly modify the target groups and risk to subvert the actual spirit of the proposal. The youth organisation has always claimed a role in deciding and monitoring the implementation of the Youth Guarantee; but this co-decision power has seldom been granted, and in many countries the implementation plan will be prepared last-minute, in a closed office without input from the affected groups.

The French minister of Employment, addressing the participants of the Youth Summit.

Another issue of the summit was the importance of focusing attention on inclusion of the NEETs (people who are Not in Education, Employment or Training) which is a population in great risk of social exclusion. The percentage of NEETs in society vary enormously from country to country, but because most countries do not include them in Unemployment statistics, they are a hidden group in big risk of exclusion.

At the same time at the summit, the presidents of most EU-countries met in Paris receiving huge media coverage, but little results. The fact that this extraordinary meeting had been called, seems a very effective way to present to the public opinion how “much” the governments care about one of the most pressing problems in Europe. But the participants at the summit would have liked to see more tangible results than front-page pictures of shaking hands, press releases, and the scheduling of a next meeting in Rome for Spring. A call for less talk and more action was the common message of almost all interventions and during the street action that was held on Tuesday.

EU Commissioner László Andor updated the participants on the outcome of the Intergovernmental Summit.

At least our Youth Summit is the start of a new period of collaboration among youth stakeholders. And we will keep ourselves working to improve the problem of youth employment. At the same time we will try to ensure that from now until the next Summit in Rome, advancements are made and no more time is lost. The next summit will take place in Spring, in the middle of the campaign for the EU elections. Political leaders will definitely plan to stage themselves carefully to the media, in order to take political advantage. But we will also make sure to use the media coverage to make our voices heard and denounce any failure in using all the available resources to fight the Youth Unemployment crisis.

Once I was back in Brussels, I went to the European Parliament to attend a Round Table Discussion on the quality of internships, which is a very relevant issue in Europe and especially in Brussels, which has a big population of interns. The issue of unpaid internships (which is an opportunity only available to those who have enough money to cover some months without income), and the intern positions that don’t provide enough learning and training (just providing employers with low-waged workers), were among the most mentioned problems of the current situation.

Both events’ information was sent regularly to Agrigento, where it fed into the discussions of the Y-Vote convention, and where they were transformed into recommendations that will be passed to the new European Parliament to be elected in May 2014. Moreover, it gave me some ideas to reboot our Youth (un)Employment project that has been dormant in the last few months. If you are motivated to contribute to solving one of the biggest challenges in Europe nowadays, why not join the project? Please contact the team at yue@aegee.org, or answer to the Open Call that will be launched soon on the ANNOUNCE-L mailing list.

Written by: Miguel Gallardo Albajar, member of the Comité Directeur

The AEGEE Youth UnEmployment (YuE) Project Team decided to skip the traditional Skype meeting and instead meet up in Brussels. The team held their meeting in AEGEE head office between the 12th and the 14th of April with the project leader, Florence Franks (European School of Entrepreneurship – ESE); Beata Matuszka (Comité Directeur); FR Responsible, David García Rodríguez (AEGEE-León); and PR Responsible, Iina Lietzén present.

The weekend included not only crazy teambuilding moments, but above all intensive discussions on how to bring the YuE project to a higher level. A physical meeting is a good way to boost the energy and get more effective. Teambuilding is very important in order to keep everyone interested and motivated about the project and their tasks – and with the help of Beata, the YuE team definitely got more energy. Moreover, fulfilling the cooking duties, planning and preparing dinner for everyone staying at the head office, certainly builds up the team spirit!

The biggest topic was the new round of the European School of Entrepreneurship (ESE) – a training that aims at equipping the participants with a complete overview of how to set up and run their own enterprise/business. The preparation for the third ESE just started with a new energy and motivation. The YuE team is working hard on this project but also aims higher – other new initiatives will hopefully also see the light in 2013!

Written by Iina Lietzén, PR Responsible of the Youh unEmployment Project

You can find the newsletter from the Youth Unemployment project team right here.

You can find the newsletter from the Youth Unemployment project team right here.

It is the time of summer holidays but the Youth UnEmployment Project has still managed to do some interesting things. Here is a good chance to have a look at what Youth UnEmployment Project is about and what we have been up to lately. Check out our fourth newsletter for the year! The main topic is the upcoming European School of Entrepreneurship taking place in Santander which you do not want to miss.

The economy is not exactly good-looking in Spain these days, but no matter this fact it was chosen last week that AEGEE-Santander will be the host of the upcoming European School of Entrepreneurship this autumn. The AEGEEan had a talk with the President of AEGEE-Santander Fernando Campo about preparations to the event. 

So what is the theme? The answer to that would be “Sustainable employment.” When can you attend it? The answer to that would be around end of September, start of October but keep in mind that nothing is sure about the date, yet! However it does seem that this autumn will create the setting for an event in which the participants will learn how to create and run their respective firm while taking care of the nature.

Heading to the North of Spain

Santander is a small city with 200.000 habitants in the north of Spain between Gijón and Bilbao. It is a beautiful coastal city with calm and friendly people who, obviously, also enjoy creating life in the street. The region is famous for their gastronomy and the precious views one can enjoy of the sea and mountains that they have, and then “Bank of Santander” (Banco Santander). The third greatest bank in the world was born in this little city and it is one of the examples to set for the young Europeans, proving that if you want to do something big – you can!

Red numbers, red alert?

The economic crisis has obviously affected the decision that made AEGEE-Santander to apply to become host of this event. Actually, they did have many doubts about how to keep the numbers in green for the event since it is a small antenna without loads of money in the bank. However, motivated AEGEEans and an eager to turn Europe upside down and organise a European event (that was not a Summer University) drew AEGEE-Santander closer to pressing “send the application” to the Youth UnEmployment Projet. In the end, AEGEE-Santander discussed this issue with friends in the Network Commission with Youth In Action experience, they talked with the principal of the university and the local government of Santander and chose in the end to dedicate their effort to this project because of the interest shown by all parties.

The idea is to ask for Youth In Action for financing but they also search for opportunities how to do fundraising. AEGEE-Santander has experience in this field through organisation of previous Summer Universities and the President Fernando Campo was a member of the fundraising team and organiser of last year’s “yellow spirit” Agora in Alicante.

Right now AEGEE-Santander is searching for a way to finance it. “We have more or less planned where to do each and every thing and we do have a plan B if we do not receive the Youth In Action grant,” President Fernando Campo responds to the question regarding how far in the process AEGEE-Santander is. The university of Cantabria is providing facilities for the workshops, the local government is helping with transportation and the “social program”, so AEGEE-Santander is already well on the way to organise a memorable event. However it is not only AEGEE-Santander who is working on the event, they are also in contact with Turgut Tosun, European School of Entrepreneurship Manager in order to make everything go down perfectly. If possible AEGEE-Santander also expects to surprise the Agora participants with a promo video.

How to set an example

“People in my antenna are very motivated about this event. We are few active members, but when a small team works well this does not matter much. They are giving their all to the project since the beginning, demonstrating a tremendous initiative. I am thrilled! Because of this, because of them, we are going to organise an event that will surprise many people, proving that a small antenna that is developing step by step is able to do something big.”

Due to the world economic situation this event could not be more interesting! In Spain the situation is more unpleasant than in the rest of Europe and an event with these characteristics can be encouraging for many and it can be an important key for courage. These are not times for tears but rather time to tough it out and find the way towards a brighter future. “Life is for survivors and maybe it is the task of AEGEE to say this loud and clear and be the ones that lead the social pack,” Fernando ends the interview.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København