The real way to combat record youth unemployment is for Europe to break with austerity, GUE/NGL MEPs reiterated today in the European Parliament debate on the EU youth strategy and youth joblessness.

 

“The International Labour Organisation states that for the European Youth Guarantee to be affective it needs €21 billion” said Irish MEP Martina Anderson. “Therefore, the current allocation of 8 billion is clearly not enough. If we want sustainable jobs for young people then the Youth Guarantee needs to be adequately funded, needs to tackle youth unemployment and needs to be part of a broader economic strategy of investment in jobs and growth.”

 

Portuguese MEP Inês Zuber said that “the reason why EU unemployment went up so much after the crisis is that the crisis is a systemic crisis, a capitalist crisis. This system allows massive transfers of wealth from workers to banks. There's no point in trying to promote employment if you are pushing policies that destroy it. Young people have a right to decent work.”

 

“One in four young people is unemployed but nobody is doing anything” said Irish MEP Paul Murphy. “The central problem here is not a skills mismatch, which is an argument that puts the blame on young people for their own unemployment. It might be obvious but the problem is that there are no jobs, and the answer is to break with austerity and to invest in education, training and jobs”.

 

“We have to be blunt in this debate” said French MEP Younous Omarjee. “Economic policy is destroying jobs. Austerity programmes are undermining particularly the public service areas of education and training, and youth joblessness stands at over 50% in some parts of the EU. The Commission must come up with specific programmes and strategies for tackling youth unemployment in regions where the rate is extremely high such as ultra-peripheral regions.”

 

GUE/NGL Press:
David Lundy +32 470 85 05 09
Gay Kavanagh +32 473 84 23 20
Emily Macintosh +32 470 85 05 08