Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-11-23-Speech-2-524"
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"en.20101123.40.2-524"2
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"Mr President, two months ago, the Commission presented the ‘Youth on the move’ flagship initiative as part of the Europe 2020 strategy. This sends a clear signal that the Commission has a special concern for young people.
Closer policy coordination under the European Semester, which we are currently preparing with the Member States, will offer the right framework for stimulating the development of policy and reforms that will benefit young people.
‘Youth on the move’ has three objectives: to improve education, increase employment and foster mobility for young people across the European Union. It will involve action to make education and training more relevant to young people’s needs, encourage them to take advantage of EU grants to study or train in another country and overcome obstacles to entering and making progress in the labour market.
The two labour market problems which the honourable Member has raised, namely, traineeships and labour market segmentation, are among the topics ‘Youth on the move’ takes up. I am grateful for the opportunity to explain the Commission’s views and aims regarding these two topics. I want to stress, first and foremost, that both fall within the Member States’ national competence in terms of practical implementation.
Let me start with traineeships, or internships as they are also sometimes called. I know that the European Parliament regards these as very important, as Ms Turunen’s report earlier this year showed. The underlying problem is that employers are reluctant to recruit young workers with little or no practical experience. This is why acquiring initial work experience through traineeships has grown in importance for young people over the years. However, they must be of high quality and have clear learning objectives. In addition, they should not replace normal jobs or probation periods at the start of a work contract.
The Commission intends to develop a quality framework for traineeships but, as a first step, we need to improve our knowledge in this area. The Commission will soon be launching a study to gain an overview of existing legal arrangements and practice across the Member States. This is part of a pilot project involving measures for employment maintenance, for which Parliament has provided the Commission with an extra budget for 2010.
A second set of issues is labour market segmentation. Young people are in a difficult position in terms of job security. Too many have short-term contracts, often alternating with unemployment, and many young people – even those who are well qualified – have little chance of getting more stable contracts. We need to tackle labour market segmentation as a matter of urgency, in particular, because it affects young people and their employment prospects most and because it endangers the future competitiveness of the European economy.
A report on employment in Europe, to be released by the Commission in a few days, finds that temporary workers are paid 14% less and receive less training than workers on permanent contracts. This has a negative impact on productivity. This applies to young people especially. Those with temporary jobs account for 40% of the total, against 13% among the overall working-age population. This means that young people bear the brunt of adjustment.
In addition, young people are experiencing more and more difficulties in getting into the labour market. The percentage of young people who are not in education, employment or training ranges from about 4% in Denmark and the Netherlands to 16 to 20% in Italy, Cyprus and Bulgaria. Reducing labour market segmentation is, first and foremost, the responsibility of the Member States. The Commission has identified this as one of the priorities the Member States should focus on in line with the common flexicurity principles under EU 2020 and the European Employment strategy.
In practical terms, the Commission proposes that Member States with segmented labour markets should consider introducing an open-ended single contract that provides for a sufficiently long probation period and a gradual increase in protection in place of the current legal disparities between permanent and temporary contracts. The Youth Employment Framework under ‘Youth on the move’ gives guidance on how policy makers, stakeholders and institutions can make progress in this area."@en1
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