The implementation of the renewed framework for European cooperation in the youth field (2010-2018)
The opinion brings forward ideas to enrich the cooperation in the youth field on the basis of the 2015 EU Youth Report, which summarises the results of the second work cycle of the EU Youth Strategy (2013-15) and proposes priorities for the next 3 years.
The opinion
– insists that in the future, ensuring equal opportunities, promoting social integration and improving the competitiveness of young people on the labour market, while fostering active citizenship (youth participation), the strengthening of youth work, non-discrimination and intercultural understanding, should remain the key objectives of youth policy;
– expresses its concern however that the Commission fails to mention the role of local and regional authorities (LRAs) in relation to youth policy;
– continues supporting the recognition and publicising of non-formal and informal learning in youth work;
– suggests developing a basic package that each Member State should, where possible, guarantee for young people. This package could focus on access to high speed internet, the option of learning a second foreign language to the equivalent of at least B2 level within the public education system, career guidance and continuous mentoring, the chance of appropriate involvement in volunteering, promoting the preparation for a first job, and flexible and accessible forms of funding. At the same time, calls on the European Commission for action to ensure that all young people in the EU who are interested in vocational training have access to it, and also to have a “minimum qualifications and skills guarantee”, recognised and validated in all Member States;
– stresses the need to match skills with employers’, production and territorial needs, and for equal opportunities for young people who live in small communities, located in peripheral, outermost, island and rural areas that are facing demographic challenges;
– deems it necessary to bolster the role of young people in the democratic process, to make their voices heard;
– draws attention to the importance of strengthening protection and support of the family, particularly in regions that are demographically challenged;
– the Committee underlines that all youth strategies and policies shall incorporate horizontal measures fighting the phenomena of discrimination on the basis of sex, gender, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability and sexual orientation.
https://cor.europa.eu/en/our-work/Pages/OpinionTimeline.aspx?opId=CDR-4872-2015