EUROPEAN COMMISSION
PRESS RELEASE
Brussels, 11 July 2014
Youth Employment Initiative: €1.1 billion of EU money to
tackle youth unemployment in Italy
The European Commission has adopted today the national Operational Programme for the
implementation of the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) in Italy. This is the second YEI
Operational Programme adopted by the European Commission, after the first in France
last month (IP/14/622), as part of the €6 billion Youth Employment Initiative for which 20
Member States (with regions with youth unemployment over 25%) are eligible.
Under this Programme, Italy will mobilise €1.5 billion from various sources, including €1.1
billion from the European budget (Youth Employment Initiative and the European Social
Fund), to help young people to find a job. Italy is the second largest recipient of Youth
Employment Initiative funds (over €530 million), which will be spent in almost all Italian
regions under the coordination of the Ministry of Labour.
Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion László Andor commented "I
warmly congratulate Italy for giving priority to tackling youth unemployment. Italy's
programme implementing the Youth Employment Initiative is very ambitious: it should
reach over half a million young Italians currently out of employment, education or training.
This reflects the urgency of giving every young person a real chance in the labour
market".
The Operational Programme will mainly contribute to implementation of the Youth
Guarantee, the ambitious EU-wide reform aiming to ensure that every young person up to
25 years is presented with a quality offer of employment, education or training within four
months of becoming unemployed or leaving formal education. Considering the
characteristics of the Italian labour market, Italy has chosen to extend these interventions
to people aged up to 29.
All beneficiaries will be offered a personalised approach through a large variety of
tailored actions: information and guidance sessions; vocational training; work placements;
apprenticeships, in particular for the youngest; traineeships, not only limited to the most
qualified (graduates); promotion of self-employment and self-entrepreneurship;
transnational and territorial professional mobility opportunities; and finally, a civil service
scheme with a possibility to certify the acquisition of new skills. Ownership is also a key
feature of the YEI programme since participants will be asked to sign individual
agreements ("Patto di attivazione") when enrolling in a curriculum.
Italian regions are key actors for the success of this programme. In the framework of the
overall strategy, they have designed specific interventions tailored to their needs and
consistent with the local socio-economic context. They will benefit from the support of all
key players, in particular the Public Employment Services which are in the process of
revisiting their procedures to offer innovative activation measures.
IP/14/826
Background
In May 2014, around 5.2 million young people (under 25) were unemployed in the EU, of
which 700 000 in Italy. More than one million Italians aged from 15 to 24 are currently out
of employment, education or training (NEETs) and this number almost doubles for the age
range 15-29.
The Commission's proposal for a Youth Guarantee was presented in December 2012 (see
IP/12/1311 and MEMO/12/938), formally adopted by the EU's Council of Ministers on 22
April 2013 (see MEMO/13/152) and endorsed by the June 2013 European Council. All 28
Member States have submitted their Youth Guarantee Implementation Plans (details
available here) and are putting in place concrete measures. Implementation of national
Youth Guarantee schemes is monitored by the Commission within the framework of the
European Semester.
The European Social Fund, providing more than €10 billion every year in the 2014-2020
period, is a key source of EU funding to implement the Youth Guarantee.
To top up the European Social Fund in Member States with regions where youth
unemployment exceeds 25%, the Council and the European Parliament agreed to create a
dedicated Youth Employment Initiative (YEI). YEI funding comprises €3 billion from a
specific new EU budget line dedicated to youth employment (frontloaded to 2014-15)
matched by at least €3 billion from Member States' European Social Fund allocations. The
YEI complements the European Social Fund for implementing the Youth Guarantee by
funding activities to directly help young people not in employment, education or training
(NEETs) aged up to 25 years, or where the Member States considers relevant, up to 29
years. The Youth Employment Initiative money can be used to support activities including
first job experience, provision of traineeships and apprenticeships, further education and
training, business start-up support for young entrepreneurs, second-chance programmes
for early school leavers and targeted wage and recruitment subsidies. The YEI will be
programmed with the European Social Fund in 2014-20.
In order to draw down Youth Employment Initiative funding as quickly as possible,
Member States can make use of several special rules. Where YEI assistance is
programmed through a specific Operational Programme, as in Italy, such a Programme
can be adopted even before the Partnership Agreement which lays the basis for the use of
all EU Structural and Investment Funds in the country in 2014-20. Moreover, the Youth
Employment Initiative can reimburse expenditure incurred by Member States as of 1
September 2013, i.e. even before the Programmes have been adopted. In addition, the
EU's top-up funding under the YEI does not require any national co-financing; only the
ESF contribution to the YEI needs to be co-financed.
Experts from the Commission and Member States are meeting in Brussels on 11th July to
accelerate the programming arrangements and practical implementation of the Youth
Employment Initiative at a special seminar organised by the Commission (see IP/14/784).
The aim of the seminar is to work jointly on the programming of measures financed by the
Youth Employment Initiative so that all eligible Member States can start receiving the
funds as soon as possible.
Now that the Operation Programmes for France and Italy have been approved more than
25% of YEI money has been committed. Other Member States including Bulgaria, Croatia,
Ireland, Poland and Sweden are also in the process of implementing projects to be
financed by the Youth Employment Initiative.
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For more information:
News item on DG Employment website
EU measures to tackle youth unemployment – see MEMO/14/466
László Andor's website
Follow László Andor on Twitter
Subscribe to the European Commission's free e-mail newsletter on employment, social
affairs and inclusion
Contacts :
Jonathan Todd (+32 2 299 41 07)
Cécile Dubois (+32 2 295 18 83)
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