EU Youth Report 2015 EU Youth Report 2015 EU Youth ISSN 2467-0219 Youth EU Youth Report 2015 FINDING INFORMATION ABOUT THE EU § Online Information about the European Union in all the official languages of the EU is available on the Europa website at: http://europa.eu § EU publications You can download or order free and priced EU publications from EU Bookshop at: http://bookshop.europa.eu. Multiple copies of free publications may be obtained by contacting Europe Direct or your local information centre (see above). § EU law and legal information For easy electronic access to legal information from the EU, including all EU law since 1951 in all the official language versions, go to EUR-Lex at: http://eurlex.europa.eu § Open data from the EU The EU Open Data Portal (http://open-data.europa.eu) provides access to datasets from the EU. Data can be downloaded and reused for free, for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. Print: ISBN 978-92-79-53491-1 doi:10.2766/67156 ISSN 2467-0200 NC-AO-15-001-EN-C PDF: ISBN 978-92-79-53490-4 doi:10.2766/272452 ISSN 2467-0219 NC-AO-15-001-EN-N Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2016 © European Union, 2016 Reuse is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. The reuse policy of European Commission documents is regulated by Decision 2011/833/EU (OJ L 330, 14.12.2011, p. 39). For any use or reproduction of photos or other material that is not under the EU copyright, permission must be sought directly from the copyright holders. Copyrights for the cover image: © iStockPhoto: DrAfter123 Printed in Luxembourg EU YOUTH REPORT 2015 3 Table of contents Foreword of the European Commission 4 Foreword of the Luxembourg Presidency 5 1. Joint Report of the Council and the Commission on the implementation of the renewed framework for European cooperation in the youth field (2010-2018) 7 2. Results of the open method of coordination in the youth field with a special focus on the second cycle (2013-2015) 17 3. Situation of young people in the European Union 155 4 EU YOUTH REPORT 2015 Foreword of the European Commission Who are the 90 mil- market have put large numbers of young Eu- lion young people in ropeans at risk of social exclusion. In fact, Europe? What are the report provides evidence that some their hopes, their young people are increasingly excluded from dreams, their views? social and civic life. And what is the EU doing to help them Recent tragic events have reminded us that make the transition exclusion can lead to radicalisation and even to adult life, to be- violent extremism. We will therefore have to come active citizens use all our resources to prevent young peo- fully involved in their communities, to find ple from drifting to the margins of society. their place in the labour market? The 2015 EU Youth Report provides both a picture of This is why, together with Member States, these young people and of youth policies at we have agreed the following priorities for EU level and in Member States. It presents the next three years: 1) increasing social what EU countries and the European Com- inclusion of all young people, 2) ensuring a mission have done to implement the EU stronger participation of all young people Youth Cooperation framework over the past in democratic and civic life, and 3) helping three years, and how this has helped to im- young people make an easier transition from prove the lives of young people. education into the labour market. Based on shared policy objectives, the EU co- We must work together to ensure that all operation framework has given a strong im- young people have fair and equal opportuni- pulse to national youth agendas, reinforced ties. This of course requires efforts across all or even prompted a reorientation of youth policy areas, as the report rightly points out. policy priorities at national and sometimes at Youth policy cannot deliver alone here. We regional or local levels. With the support of must seek to cooperate with decision-mak- the Erasmus+ programme, we have focused ers and practitioners in sectors such as on employment, inclusion and participation employment, health, education, culture and in democratic life - themes which remain sport. And to support this approach, we must among the priorities for the coming years. take full advantage of national and regional The report clearly shows that today’s young resources as well as EU funding instruments generation is better educated than any oth- such as Erasmus+, the European Social Fund er before it: one third of 30 to 34 year olds or the Youth Employment Initiative. in Europe hold a tertiary degree, and 82% of the 20 to 24 year olds have completed I would like to thank all Member States and upper secondary education. There are also especially the Council of Youth Ministers for signs that the situation on the job market their efforts, and for expressing a shared is improving: between September 2014 and commitment to addressing young people’s September 2015, youth unemployment de- concerns and interests, as shown in the EU creased by 500 000. But we still need to Work Plan for Youth for 2016-2018. I also make a lot more progress on this front. thank the European Youth Forum for its voice in developing EU actions in the youth At the same time, there is a growing ‘youth field and for its input feeding into this re- divide’: not all young people have access to porting exercise. the opportunities open to their generation, and obstacles tend to accumulate for those Tibor Navracsics, who are disadvantaged to start with. The Commissioner for Education, economic crisis and its impact on the labour Culture, Youth and Sport EU YOUTH REPORT 2015 5 Foreword of the Luxembourg Presidency What are the con- face stay very similar. The priorities for fu- ditions and barriers ture action defined in this report are cer- young Europeans tainly the central issues for young people face in the process in Europe today. Becoming full citizens, of becoming full getting opportunities to study and inte- citizens in the Eu- grate the labor market, being included in ropean Union? Who open and democratic societies that listen are they and which to young people and take on board their place do they have opinions - those are the big priorities that in our societies in come of out of this report. This is true for the early 21st century? What has been all young people, but we must also face the achieved and how should youth policies evidence that it is a lot harder for some of in Europe respond to their challenges dur- them. These groups, whether we call them ing the coming years? Those are some of disadvantaged, with fewer opportunities or the questions at the core of this European at risk of marginalization, force us to take a Youth Report, adopted under the Luxem- closer look at how our policies fail to reach bourg chairmanship by the Council of Eu- all young people to the same extent. We ropean Youth Ministers as the 2015 Joint must strengthen our efforts to make them Report of the Council and of the Commis- benefit from the policies we develop, espe- sion on the implementation of the renewed cially those groups defined in the report as framework for European Cooperation in the particularly vulnerable. youth field (2010-2018). Aside from being a common definition of Responding to young people’s challenges in overall political priorities for the 3rd cycle order to create the best possible opportuni- of the implementation of the European ties for them to grow up in inclusive, open Youth Strategy, the report and its statisti- and democratic societies, these topics of cal materials are an inestimable source of this report have also been guidelines for us knowledge on the situation of young Eu- during the Luxembourg Presidency of the ropeans today. I sincerely hope and wish Council of the European Union, especially that many opportunities will be created in the youth and education fields. We have to undertake common discussion and un- invested a lot of energy in the discussion of derstanding of the knowledge contained in this European Youth Report as well as into this report. It is only through fora for con- the preparation of the 2016-2018 EU Work tinuous exchange and creation of common Plan for Youth. This Work Plan is a first step understanding that we are able to produce for the implementation of the priorities de- good policies for young people, but also, fined in the European Youth Report through ultimately, make lively democracies in Eu- concrete actions that the Council of Euro- rope happen. pean Youth Ministers will take over during the next years. Claude Meisch Minister of Education, The diversity of young people in Europe is Children and Youth very broad, whereas the questions they Luxembourg Joint Report of the Council and the Commission on the implementation of the renewed framework for European cooperation in the youth field (2010-2018) 8 EU YOUTH REPORT 2015 Young people’s human and social capital 1. Introduction is one of Europe’s greatest assets for the future. The European Union and its Mem- The EU supports young people’s employ- ber States need to invest in the potential ment, employability and social inclusion, that 90 million young Europeans represent especially under its agenda for jobs, growth in terms of skills, creativity and diversity. and investment, the Europe 2020 strategy and through EU funds such as Erasmus+, The economic crisis has hit young people ESF and YEI.