Activities of Paul MURPHY related to 2013/2045(INI)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on tackling youth unemployment: possible ways out PDF (348 KB) DOC (236 KB)
Amendments (33)
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas in January 2013 23 % of active young people were jobless, with the rates ranging from 15 % or less in Austria, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands to over 55 % in Greece and Spain, indicating marked geographical differences; Notes that in many member states different categories of young people, e.g. underemployed part-time workers or people sanctioned for not complying with 'workfare' schemes, are not included in these figures and that the real figures on youth unemployment are higher;
Amendment 33 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Ca. Whereas youth unemployment is an important contributing factor to the sharp rise in migration that is taking place in a number of member states, seen most profoundly in the so-called 'PIIGS'; Whereas this massive emigration has deprived these countries of an important layer of their most dynamic people and has a devastation effect on local communities;
Amendment 39 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas young people are particularly disadvantaged during economic crises, more so than most groups; raises in this regard the detrimental effect of the move towards more flexible contracts which is particularly strong among young workers leading to them having a disproportionate rate of precarious contracts and therefore be the first to suffer from unemployment; whereas for many young people current unemployment can be expected to turn into long-term unemployment, which brings risks of social exclusion; whereas this has alarming consequences for young individuals, lowering their self-esteem, leaving their ambitions unrealised, and delaying their assumption of an independent adult life including starting a family, and consequently also for society, negatively impacting on the social, economic and demographic situation in Europe;
Amendment 46 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D a (new)
Recital D a (new)
Da. whereas Member States have to provide a social safety net and guarantee decent living conditions for workers who become unemployed and for young people unable to find work;
Amendment 50 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D b (new)
Recital D b (new)
Db. whereas as the economic and financial crisis has worsened and austerity has been imposed, emigration from the Member States in the most severe difficulty has been increasing at an accelerating rate; whereas a new category of emigrants has emerged, namely young people, more often than not highly qualified;
Amendment 52 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas in the context of the Lisbon Strategy 2000-2010 the EU has undertaken to raise education levels, reduce school drop-out rates to less than 10% by 2020, and increase the rate of completion of tertiary or equivalent education to at least 40%; whereas several Member States have increased or are thinking of increasing tuition fees in higher education;
Amendment 53 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
Ea. whereas more and more teachers have been losing their jobs in some countries being ‘bailed out’ by the Troika, and, as a result, teaching standards are declining, schools are being closed, curricula are being pared down, and academic failure and school drop-out rates are rising; whereas the higher student-teacher ratios resulting from the cuts are translating into lower teaching standards in the education system, the goal of which should be to enable teachers to follow the school careers of their pupils more closely;
Amendment 54 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
Ea. Whereas the liberalisation of the education system, for instance through the Bologna process, and the austerity policies imposed in various member states have undone many of the steps towards a more accessible education system; stresses therefore the need for an education system that is publicly owned, democratically run, accessible to all and free at the point of use;
Amendment 60 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas SMEs, which are a driving force for economic growth and job creation and for achieving the goals of the Europe 2020 Strategy, have shed more than 3.5 million jobs as a result of the economic crisis, with workplace closures affecting all workers, including the young;
Amendment 68 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas the economic crisis which begancame visible in 2008 has negatively affected both demand and supply on the labour market, thus dramatically increasing uncertainty over job prospects and making it essential for all unemployed people to be better informed about employment prospects;
Amendment 72 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G a (new)
Recital G a (new)
Ga. Whereas austerity policies implemented across Europe have not led to an economic recovery or job growth; whereas more and more economists clearly indicate that austerity policies have had the opposite effect: depressing economic growth and destroying jobs;
Amendment 100 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Stresses that the policy measures implemented by Member States need to be diversified and should tackle all potential obstacles in young people's pathway to sustainable employmentmeaningful, sustainable, well paid, decent employment with full trade union rights, paying particular attention to vulnerable groups that are more likely to suffer from multiple disadvantages;
Amendment 103 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Recalls that, given the fact that the number over young unemployed and underemployed people far outstretches the number of available jobs, unemployment can not be blamed on the unemployed; therefore clearly denounces any shift of responsibility for the unemployment crisis to the unemployed;
Amendment 121 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Stresses that the involvement of all relevant stakeholders, including trade unions, training and education providers, individual employers, public and privatestudent organisations, youth organisations, public employment services, social partners, third-sector organisations, and health and other authorities, is essential for the successful implementation of a variety of measures fostering youth employment and employability in an integrated fashion; emphasises that measures must be flexible so as to meet the continuously evolving needs on the labour markeneeds of young people best;
Amendment 146 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Recognises the particularly difficult situation in certain regions where the level of unemployment among young people is above 25 %; welcomes the fact that EU support for youth employment will be further boosted through the proposed EU Youth Employment Initiative, with a budget of EUR 6 billion over the seven- year period 2014-2020; regrets however the moderate ambitions of the YEI and the fact that the funding allocated is far below what would be necessary to have a real impact on youth unemployment; Refers in this context to the ILO study 'Euro Zone job crisis: trends and policy responses' that raises the need for 21 billion euro to be injected to have an impact on the level of youth unemployment2; __________________ 2 http://www.ilo.org/global/research/publica tions/WCMS_184965/lang--en/index.htm
Amendment 160 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Welcomes the decision of the EPSCO Council on 28 February 2013 to agree on a Council recommendation on implementing a Youth Guarantee; recommends extending eligibility to graduatesyoung people aged underp to 30; stresses that the success of this measure will be highly dependent on other factors, e.g. the infrastructure and capacity of public and strengthened private employment services, the availability of student placesplaces for young people, the provision of training and, apprenticeships, and the transferability and implementation of successful experiences from other Member States; stresses that the Youth Guarantee must be integrated within the broader framework of active labour market policies while ensuring high quality standards;
Amendment 165 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Welcomes the decision of the EPSCO Council on 28 February 2013 to agree on a Council recommendation on implementing a Youth Guarantee; recommends extending eligibility to graduates aged under 30; stresses that the success of this measure will be highly dependent on other factors, e.g. the infrastructure and capacity of public and strengthened private employment services, the availability of student places, the provision of training and, apprenticeships, and the transferability and implementation of successful experiences from other Member States; stresses that the Youth Guarantee must be integrated within the broader framework of active labour market policies, while ensuring high quality standards, only if these policies are not compulsory;
Amendment 171 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
Amendment 181 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Maintains that that such support for enterprises, cooperatives, and third-sector organisations should be of an exceptional and temporary nature and subject to explicit undertakings given in return, in particular to preserve jobs, observe the standards laid down in national law and collective labour agreements, and fulfil tax and social security obligations; believes that support of this kind should be publicised and made known to workers and their representative organisations, and that employers should be required to post information on company premises, in places readily accessible to workers, specifying the support received, its purpose, and the way in which it is to be implemented;
Amendment 186 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Believes that work placements should be supervised and followed up to more useful effect and permanent contracts concluded when permanent posts are to be filled in entities receiving support;
Amendment 204 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Maintains that all unemployed persons receiving support should be monitored so as to enable each worker’s specific training, skills, and, where applicable, vocational retraining needs to be determined at the time when job offers are being assessed and after a worker has accepted a job, the object being to ascertain whether the conditions laid down are being complied with and how far the worker has adapted to the circumstances;
Amendment 221 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Calls on the Member States to support self-employment among young people by creating facilities and preferential conditions for starting up their own businesses, through, e.g., cutting red tape and introducing favourable tax policiesyoung people who choose to be self- employed;
Amendment 232 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Welcomes, in the context of promoting self-employment among young people,Notes the proposed successor to the Progress Microfinance Facility included in the Programme for Social Change and Innovation for the period 2014-2020, in order to better meet demand, also among young people;
Amendment 241 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Calls for an ambitious holistic policy approach which looks at education, training, employment and self- and employment initiatives, for all young people at all the various levels, in an integrated way;
Amendment 251 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 b (new)
Paragraph 10 b (new)
10b. Maintains that Member States should regulate work placements in the proper manner, encompassing them under the heading of student training, and that unpaid placements should be prohibited;
Amendment 253 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Calls on the Member States to ensure high-quality frameworks for traineeships making sure that traineeships are tailored to the needs of young people and include decent wages, labour rights and working conditions that do not undermine the wages and conditions of the existing workforce, backed up by financial support and mandatory monitoring, as well as a common quality standard for traineeships and work placements; stresses that active promotion and awareness-raising in respect of such programmes is needed among entrepreneurs;
Amendment 273 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Emphasises that the Alliance for Apprenticeship should also support European and national campaigns for changing perceptions of vocational education, thereby ensuring that students undergoing training of this kind will be placed on an equal footing with other students as regards access to higher education, and should organise a regular forum for discussions on the monitoring of the European apprenticeship strategy with all relevant European and national stakeholders; stresses that incentives should also be provided to facilitate funding for cross-border training activities enabling companies and social partner organisations to become involved in establishing dual education systems;
Amendment 278 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12a. Stresses that in no way traineeships should be used to replace people who were hired on regular contracts or undermine their wages and working conditions; stresses therefore that all trainees, interns or people in vocational training should receive decent wages and conditions and that they should have full trade union rights;
Amendment 281 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Encourages the Member States to foster the mobility of young workers by means of further progress further towards the mutual recognition of qualifications and skills and enhanced coordination of national social security systems, especially as regards pension systems, as well as by continuing to; underlines however that any harmonisation should not undermine social rights and working conditions of workers but on the contrary it should increase the level of protection and social rights to the highest standard found in the EU; member states should invest substantially in language learning;
Amendment 309 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Calls on the Member States to develop personalised career counselling and guidance, starting already during secondary school, with the aim of enabling young people to make well-informed choices about their higher education, while introducing mechanisms that can monitor the opportunities offered and assess; stresses that all counselling should be based solely on the interests, needs and aspirations of young people and not the requirements of the private sector; calls on member states to introduce mechanisms that can monitor the success rate of those young people's subsequent transition to work;
Amendment 319 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 a (new)
Paragraph 17 a (new)
17a. Notes that, because of the economic and financial crisis, many families can no longer afford to pay for higher education, with the result that drop-out rates at this level have increased; considers that Member States should ensure that all persons, regardless of their economic circumstances, can enjoy the right to free universal education of a high quality;
Amendment 327 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 a (new)
Paragraph 18 a (new)
18a. Stresses the need to immediately halt all austerity policies;
Amendment 328 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 b (new)
Paragraph 18 b (new)
18b. Reiterates that, given the historically low level of investment in the economy by the private sector, the public sector needs to become the driving force of economic growth and job creation through massive programmes of public investment together with the taking into democratic public ownership of the economy, so to provide the basis for the re-development of the economy and thus creating meaningful and high quality jobs and the eradication of youth unemployment;