Only last May, I was addressing the European Parliament on the issue of the tough austerity measures that conservative governments were imposing all over the continent and how they were, and still are, badly hitting the average European family.
It was a time when the whole Socialists and Democrats Group was strongly recommending a new approach to the problem of unemployment, particularly with regard to the millions of jobless young men and women in Europe.
European youth was the biggest victim of the drastic austerity measures.
The social burden that such measures, and the extreme financial discipline that goes with it, inflict on young families in Europe threaten their future because they offer no real solution to the circa 24 million officially unemployed young men and women and to the several million others who were brutally struck off the dole list by governments so desperately seeking to minimise the effects of this social epidemic.
This was the background to my vociferous support to the European Socialists’ proposal of a European Youth Guarantee, which ensures that young men and women within the European Union are offered a choice based on employment or training or both after a maximum of four months on the dole. This would inevitably help bridge their transition into a better and more secure future.
The Socialists and Democrats Group’s unstinting work within the European Parliament soon bore fruit.
It was a concerted effort aimed at convincing existing governments, of whichever political conviction, to take the challenge and move from strict austerity to the creation of investment initiatives and opportunities as has been done in member States like Austria and Finland.
On February 8, the European Parliament finally agreed overwhelmingly to call on all EU governments to implement a youth guarantee programme across Europe to reduce the level of unemployment affecting one young person in five.
The young in Malta have, unfortunately, not been immune to the scourge of unemployment and/or precarious employment.
The European Parliament resolution was adopted with a massive majority. It states that any unemployed European resident aged under 25 or a graduate who is under 30 should be offered a decent job, continuing education or an apprenticeship within four months of such person becoming unemployed or leaving formal education.
This was happily followed up by the approval of a €6 billion fund to help cover the European Youth Guarantee, a feather in the cap of all those within Europe’s highest democratic institution who had insisted austerity was not the solution.
We now enter a period where Europe is strongly committed, both morally and financially, to its youth guarantee.
With Malta’s Labour having been the first to introduce the resolution on a European Youth Guarantee, we could only join the whole Socialists and Democrats Group in rejoicing and celebrating the fact that the whole European Youth Guarantee, which started more than a year ago, has finally been successfully accepted.
The overall reaction was that “finally, there is a majority who understand that there will be no future for Europe if there is no future for young people. Their future is our future.”
It is recognised that the levelof unemployment among the young in Europe is simply unacceptable and everything must be done to improve the situation.
We need to do our utmost to give these young people a chance so they don’t become a lost generation and the fight against youth unemployment should rightly remain at the top of our agenda.
We should not, however, deceive ourselves into thinking that the approval of – and the financial backing to – the European Youth Guarantee can solve the problem overnight.
The guarantee needs parties and governments genuinely interested in making it work.
Here in Malta, at least, we know the Labour Party is ready, willing and able to take the challenge if, on March 9, it is entrusted with the job of running the country during the next five years.
joseph@josephcuschieri.com
Joseph Cuschieri is a Labour MEP.