The House of Lords is due to debate EU youth employment later today, following a report which found that unemployment is still at “damagingly high” levels across Europe.
The EU Committee report, which examined the value of EU youth unemployment initiatives, as well as whether funding is being used effectively in the UK, revealed that nearly twice as many young people are unemployed now, compared to before the economic crisis.
The committee therefore urged the government to set up a Youth Guarantee scheme in the UK, an initiative successfully being used by many EU countries.
However, Baroness O’Cathain, who chairs the sub-committee that conducted the report’s inquiry, said they are “disappointed” by a lack of government action on this, considering the “staggering” figures on joblessness across Europe.
“In our report, we called on the government to re-think its approach to how it uses EU money to get young people back into work. We believe that a model like that used by many countries in the EU, the Youth Guarantee, would be an improvement on the system currently in place in this country.
“The five areas with the worst unemployment rates in the UK are due to receive extra money from the EU to tackle youth unemployment.
“We suggested that the extra money should be concentrated solely on these five areas and we urged the government to use the money to pilot the Youth Guarantee in these areas.
“We are disappointed that the government did not act upon our recommendations on this issue.”
The debate is scheduled to start at around 7.30pm on Tuesday evening, and can be watched live here.
