on the adoption of a “European Youth Pact”

CONCERNING THE “EUROPEAN YOUTH PACT”, PROPOSED BY MR.ZAPATERO,
MR.CHIRAC, MR PERSSON AND MR. SCHRÖDER TO BE INCLUDED AS ONE OF THE
TOOLS OF THE LISBON STRATEGY, AND ADOPTED BY THE SPRING EUROPEAN
COUNCIL, AND IN SUPPORT ON THE DEMANDS OF THE EUROPEAN YOUTH FORUM:

1.      The European greens support the idea of a “European youth pact”, in order to strengthen youth rights and full citizenship as well as to increase the number of jobs for young people in Europe.

2.      The European greens support the adoption of this Youth Pact by the Spring European Council and its inclusion in the Lisbon strategy, in order to develop this policy areas included in the Commission’s White paper on European youth policy adopted in 2002.

3.      The European Greens demand a stronger focus on environmental aspects in the pact. What young people need and demand is a planet that is still worth living in in the future. Pollution and climate change have a great influence on the young people of today. We demand that the youth policies respond to the great responsibility of today’s politicians and we demand a stronger focus on environmental aspects in order to support youth.

4.      However, the policy areas included in the Lisbon strategy are crucial for European youth. Employment, education or mobility are at the heart of the policy areas responding to the needs of European youth.

5.      The European greens support the demand of the European Youth Forum and the Federation of Young European Greens to strengthen the participation of young people in the implementation of the Lisbon strategy. Therefore, we support the idea that a European Pact for and with Youth will reinforce the effective implementation of the Lisbon agenda and at the same time has the potential for significantly improving the living conditions and prospects of young people in Europe.

6.      The European greens support the Youth Forum in its demand on including the policies of the Youth Pact into the new guidelines for the Lisbon strategy. These integrated guidelines should aim at concrete goals and targets regarding the situation of young people to be set in the national reform programmes.

7.      The European greens believe that the member states should follow these demands and develop ambitious policy programmes in order to improve the living conditions of its young people. It is important also to work as well to a necessary coordination of the different national policies.

8.      The European Greens demand that the Youth Pact will enable young people with less opportunities such as young migrants, Sinti and Roma to have equal access to the proposed measures. Efficient measures on youth employment are important but they make only sense if all young people have access. The pact needs to answer the youth unemployment which is two times higher than the average unemployment rate and normally young people face poor working conditions and discrimination. This has to be a central issue faced by the Lisbon strategy.

9.      The Youth Pact needs to reinforce the policies on gender equality. Young women today face a double discrimination for being young and female. This issue needs to be addressed sufficiently in the Youth Pact.

10.     This is a unique opportunity to improve youth participation and youth autonomy. Youth participation in the definition and implementation of youth policies are a crucial step towards effective policies addressing young people’s needs. The “European Youth Pact” is a good opportunity for that.

11.     The European greens believe that this is only the first step of a long process. The Pact can only be meaningful if concrete measures aimed at improving the situation of young people are implemented in the Member States. We hope to see a far reaching and continued involvement of all the parties concerned, first and foremost national, regional and local youth organisations and youth councils as well as the European Youth Forum, to work together to solve the issues of greatest concern to young people. The European greens will do their best to implement these objectives.

12.      The European greens will institutionally support the demands of the Youth Forum on the pact and will work towards a complete implementation of the policies defined in the European pact for Youth.