![](http://pr.euractiv.com/sites/default/files/styles/ea_company_list/public/Logo_of_the_Party_of_European_Socialists.png?itok=xxIau9VQ)
PES: Youth Guarantee funding extension vital to fight unemployment
Date
Sections
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