The Party of European Socialists welcomes the European Parliament's vote yesterday to provide an extension of funding for the hugely successful Youth Guarantee.

Led by the Socialists & Democrats group, MEPs agreed to provide a temporary boost of 500 million euro to the scheme, allowing it to continue in 2017 after the initial funding ran out.

PES president Sergei Stanishev said:

"The Youth Guarantee was a PES initiative. It guarantees a job, traineeship or education place to all young people after they leave education or become unemployed. According to the Commission's own assessment, over 9 million young people have benefited from the scheme already.

"But the initial funding for the scheme expired in 2016, and the European Commission had proposed only a very limited extension, spread over four years -- essentially a major defunding of one of the EU’s most successful tools for combating youth unemployment.

"Parliament's vote ensures that the scheme will survive at least for now. But this is only a temporary extension. The Party of European Socialists will continue to fight for serious, long-term investment in youth employment as part of our Youth Plan."

Read more about the Youth Guarantee

For more information, please contact Toby Wardman
toby.wardman@pes.eu, +32 491 86 97 48