YOUTH POLICY : EP INTERGROUP SUBMITS PRIORITIES TO VASSILIOU.

• Position: Androulla Vassiliou

The European Parliament's Youth Intergroup urges the European Commission and Council to set up more visible and more effective mobility programmes and not to cut budgets for youth policy. It issued this appeal on 25 January, at a meeting with Education and Youth Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou and Hungarian Secretary of State for Youth Affairs Miklos Soltesz, who were at the EP to present the Youth on the move' flagship initiative.

Launched in September 2010 by the Commission, this initiative aims to help young people to acquire skills and qualifications. It proposes 28 key actions, including the creation of a student loan system, a European youth mobility card and a youth guarantee. The intergroup welcomed the initiative. "We welcome the Commission's ambition to make Europe more accessible to young people with the enlargement of youth mobility programmes for all. The Europe of mobility is a Europe of concrete actions," commented its Chair, French MEP Damien Abad (EPP). The report by Milan Zver (Slovenia, EPP) on the Commission's communication will be put to the vote in plenary in May 2011.

MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE

With a jobless rate of nearly 21% for young people, MEPs want the commissioner to provide better coordination for actions to boost employment and youth mobility. They stressed the need to make mobility accessible to the greatest number: it cannot be limited to a small percentage of young Europeans or addressed solely to...