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LYMEC president Vedrana Gujic states: “7.5 million young Europeans are not in education, employment or training. That is horrifying for society and economy. Reforms to give young people new perspectives are highly appreciated and needed but the youth guarantee is communicated as the solution to end youth unemployment . But despite the fact that the programme will cost at least 16.7 billion Euro in the period of 2014 to 2020 there is no precise definition of what the youth guarantee will provide and barely no criteria to apply for that money.”

To make the youth guarantee work beyond mere propaganda, it must have clear definitions, the goals of the funding schemes have to be stated and a monitoring system has to be implemented. Otherwise it will become a waste of money instead a chance for young people.

Young Liberals do not think that subsidies will solve the problem: throwing money at something that does not work will not make it work. Youth unemployment coexists with millions of vacant jobs in areas that require skilled workers in ICT, engineering and mathematics.

Our solutions pass by:

• introducing entrepreneurship and innovative subjects in schools, like coding;
• strengthen and dignify vocational education and training, with emphasis on dual education (parallel schooling and traineeship for high-school students);
• facilitating the re-training of workers;
• a flexicurity system where protection of work takes precedence over the protection of jobs.

We urge the European institutions and the pan-European Youth organizations to move away from a defeatist vision on youth unemployment, according to which young people can only survive if they get subsidies, to a vision that recognizes the true potential of young people. Educational, fiscal and labour market reforms are the solution, not the Youth Guarantee.