FRAMEWORK OF ACTIONS ON YOUTH EMPLOYMENT Third follow-up report September 2016 3rd follow-up report, Framework of Actions on Youth Employment Page 1 of 104 Contents Foreword .............................................................................................................................................................................. 3 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................................ 4 Chapter I – Main trends under the four priorities ............................................................................................... 6 Chapter II – Focus on ..................................................................................................................................................... 11 Chapter III – National evaluation reports ............................................................................................................. 14 1. Austria ............................................................................................................................................................. 14 2. Belgium ........................................................................................................................................................... 17 3. Bulgaria .......................................................................................................................................................... 24 4. Croatia ............................................................................................................................................................. 27 5. Cyprus ............................................................................................................................................................. 31 6. Czech Republic ............................................................................................................................................. 34 7. Denmark ......................................................................................................................................................... 37 8. Estonia ............................................................................................................................................................ 38 9. Finland ............................................................................................................................................................ 40 10. Germany ......................................................................................................................................................... 42 11. Hungary .......................................................................................................................................................... 45 12. Ireland ............................................................................................................................................................. 46 13. Italy................................................................................................................................................................... 48 14. Latvia ............................................................................................................................................................... 50 15. The Netherlands.......................................................................................................................................... 51 16. Poland.............................................................................................................................................................. 59 17. Portugal .......................................................................................................................................................... 62 18. Romania.......................................................................................................................................................... 67 19. Spain ................................................................................................................................................................ 72 20. Sweden ............................................................................................................................................................ 73 21. United Kingdom .......................................................................................................................................... 76 Annex I – List of contact persons ............................................................................................................................. 79 Annex II – Framework of Actions on Youth Employment (June 2013) .................................................... 88 3rd follow-up report, Framework of Actions on Youth Employment Page 2 of 104 Foreword This is the third annual follow-up report of the Framework of Actions on Youth Employment, adopted by the Social Dialogue Committee on 27 September 2016. It gives useful information on the actions by social partners taken at national, cross-industry, sectoral and enterprise level on youth employment. It describes the main trends that can be identified through the different national reports submitted to the ETUC (and the liaison committee EUROCADRES/CEC), BusinessEurope, CEEP and UEAPME, and compiles into one document the members’ contributions. The European social partners would like to thank their national affiliates for their contributions. 3rd follow-up report, Framework of Actions on Youth Employment Page 3 of 104 Introduction In their autonomous work programme 2012-14, the European social partners (EU SPs) ETUC, BusinessEurope, CEEP and UEAPME agreed to address the issue of youth employment as first priority and to negotiate a Framework of Actions (FoA). The text was negotiated between September 2012 and April 2013, and was successfully adopted by the four EU SPs organisations in 20131. It includes an annex presenting a selection of national initiatives in the field of youth employment. The Framework of Actions aims to promote solutions to reduce youth unemployment, deliver concrete measures to improve young people’s employment opportunities and contribute to this important debate. It calls on national social partners, public authorities and other stakeholders to act together and achieve concrete progress. It builds upon existing and new practices linked with the four priorities identified: - Priority 1: Learning - Priority 2: Transition - Priority 3: Employment - Priority 4: Entrepreneurship As in previous FoAs, national social partners are committed to report on their activities annually over three years (2014, 2015, and 2016) which will allow an evaluation of the progress made towards achieving their objectives in order to ensure they have a real impact. This will be followed by a final evaluation report in 2017. As part of this follow-up process, the European social partners will evaluate the Framework of Actions’ impact on both employers and workers. Furthermore, as indicated in the negotiated text, “this evaluation can lead to an update of the priorities identified and/or an assessment on whether or not additional action is required in one or more of the priority areas”. During this year’s follow-up, the level of engagement and positive contributions of national social partners, including through their agreements, is stable compared with last year’s. More progress is needed especially on activities directly linked to bipartite initiatives. Many of the initiatives identified in the national evaluation reports focus on updates to ongoing initiatives which have been reported previously. But overall, during the first three years of follow-up work, social partners in 23 out of the 28 Member States have provided input. This high number of national reports by national social partners compared with observed levels of reporting for recent EU social dialogue instruments, shows that the more the European social partners address important issues for the national social partners, the better actual implementation or follow-up is. 1 It is the third Framework of Actions negotiated by the European social partners, following the 2002 FoA on the lifelong development of competencies and qualifications and the 2005 FoA on Gender Equality. 3rd follow-up report, Framework of Actions on Youth Employment Page 4 of 104 Upcoming conference on the youth employment Framework of Actions In spring 2017, the European social partners intend2 to organise a conference with the objective to prepare for the drafting of the final evaluation report of the 2013 Framework of Actions on Youth Employment (to be published in autumn 2017). As done in the past before the final implementation report on the Framework Agreement on Inclusive Labour Markets, this conference will be an opportunity to take stock of national developments, as well as encourage national social partners to exchange information on the activities held at national level and discuss the preliminary findings of the final evaluation report. This will also raise awareness on the ways social partners’ have followed-up the four priorities set by the Framework of Actions. The Conference will also be an opportunity, in the case of absence of reporting after four years, to encourage the members in the countries concerned to keep the European social partners informed about their follow-up activities until actions have been undertaken at