European money will not solve unemployment among young people

Europe wants to give permanent subsidies to an initiative intended to help more young people find a job. The N-VA fears that it will have the opposite effect. After all, it eliminates the stimulus for the regions in question to turn the ship around themselves. What’s more, the causes of unemployment among young people vary tremendously in the various different Member States. MEP Helga Stevens therefore considers it wiser to motivate Member States to carry out a policy that is tailored to their own employment market.

“Take the situation in Brussels for example,” Helga Stevens explains. “Young people who are placed in training programmes supported by Europe disappear from the unemployment statistics. This means that the Brussels-Capital Region can put on a feel-good show without doing any structural work to create more jobs for young people. In Flanders, unemployment among young people fell last year by no less than 9.1% thanks to the efforts of Minister Muyters and the VDAB The Vlaamse Dienst voor Arbeidsbemiddeling en Beroepsopleiding (VDAB, Flemish Public Employment and Professional Training Service) is a Flemish public service that coordinates supply and demand in the employment market, with its main task consisting of serving as an intermediary for job seekers and providing them with support in getting back to work. Since the State reform in 1989, job placement has been a competence of the Regions and job training a competence of the Communities. The VDAB’s counterpart in Wallonia is Forem, and Actiris in Brussels. VDAB . No European handouts were needed to achieve this.”

EUR 2.4 billion can be spent better

Within the European Youth Employment Initiative, EUR 2.4 billion will be spent in the coming years on programmes that regions would nevertheless otherwise have operated for the most part themselves. The European Court of Auditors is also asking itself a number of serious questions in this regard. However, the European Parliament is standing its ground. “Europe can make itself useful by exchanging proven solutions of regional employment services,” Helga Stevens concludes. “But that EUR 2.4 billion can clearly be spent in a better way.”