UPN, Alm.del - 2012-13 - Bilag 218: Brev fra DER-formanden til stats- og regeringscheferne vedr. ungdomsarbejdsløshed forud for DER 27.-28.06.13

At our next European Council, in June, we should make further progress towards the goals we haveset ourselves to exit the crisis. Our common strategy comprises four elements, four 'keys' to unlockour way to recovery. First: preserving financial stability, where we are on the right track. Second,improving the resilience of our economies, through sound public finances and improvedcompetitiveness. Here, we begin to see the first results. Third: strengthening our economic andmonetary union, especially the banking union, for which the months ahead of us will be crucial.And fourth, fighting unemployment and supporting growth in the near term.

In June, I would like to put the fight against unemployment high on our agenda. The number ofunemployed people in our Union, especially of young people, is at record levels. It has become oneof the most pressing issues in most, if not all, of our Member States. That is why we must do ourutmost to deal with it together.

The June European Council will be an opportunity to mobilise efforts at all levels around oneshared objective: to get motivated young people back to work or education. We must give them theguarantee that they will be either in training, further education or employment within four monthsof leaving school. I call on all actors to rally around this objective.

Member States are key actors in this regard. The huge differences in youth unemployment rateswithin our Union demonstrate that national policies and situations matter. The National Job Planswhich you submitted to the European Commission as part of the National Reform Programmes alsoillustrate your key role.

In recent days, several of you announced that they would come forward with ideas to foster youthemployment or share best practices. I welcome and encourage these initiatives. Based on yourexperiences, I invite you to actively contribute, also through your collaborators, to the preparationof our June meeting. Moreover, I also look forward to working on the follow-up of this JuneEuropean Council, for instance at the meeting organised by Chancellor Angela Merkel on July 3, inBerlin.

In my meetings with the social partners, I notice that the fight against youth unemployment goes tothe heart of their work. I call on them to continue to engage actively and jointly on this issue. I hopethat they will be able to agree together on concrete steps ahead of the European Council. I standready to support them in this endeavour.

We have to keep moving forward on the actions which have already been deployed at the Unionlevel. The European Commission has proposed a series of measures in the framework of the YouthEmployment Package; the European Alliance for Apprenticeships will be launched early July. Therecommendation to establish a Youth Guarantee has been swiftly adopted by the Council. And inthe European Council, we have repeatedly underlined the importance of tackling youthunemployment, notably in the Compact for Growth and Jobs. We have followed up with concretedecisions: in June last year, we agreed to redirect considerable amounts of EU funds, helping800,000 young people in the eight most affected countries. In February, we set aside €6 billion forthe Youth Employment Initiative in the Union's next seven year budget, notably to support YouthGuarantee schemes. We should make sure that all the preparatory work is carried out at the latest byour October summit, so that this initiative can be fully operational by 1st of January 2014. I also callon the Council and the Parliament, who both attach great importance to the fight against youthunemployment, to jointly work towards that end.

At our last meeting just three days ago, we illustrated once again our strong determination to fosterEurope's competitiveness and to stimulate growth and jobs in our Union. I am confident that thissame determination will also guide our work at the June European Council, to the benefit of anentire generation of young Europeans.