Tackling Youth Unemployment:
The European Green Deal and European Youth Guarantee
– Opportunities and Challenges (Webinar)

Today, youth make up 37 % of the global working-age population, but account for 60 % of the total unemployed. According to the OECD, the global youth unemployment rate is three times higher than for adults. Indeed, the youth labour market is highly sensitive to economic cycles, and in times of economic crisis youth employment is hit more strongly by economic shocks than adult employment. Young workers are often “first out”. During the 2008 crisis, one in ten jobs in Europe held by workers under 30 were lost. In Spain, Greece and Ireland, half of working young people lost their jobs between 2007 and 2014. Twelve years after that recession and despite economic recovery across the OECD, the youth employment rate has stagnated since 2010 and never recovered to pre-2008 crisis levels. 

This requires supra-national and national action, as economic crises force young people into long-term unemployment, inactivity and discouragement which affects their long-term career prospects. The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the youth labour market will be severe in developed, emerging, and developing countries. The lockdowns and the spread of the virus mean millions of young people lack social protection, income benefit in case of sickness, and are at risk through inadequate access to universal health care.  

In light of these concerns, the European Commisson has introduced the ‘reinforced’ Youth Guarantee, which is supposed to play a crucial role in tackling youth unemployment in Europe, especially in countries like Greece or Spain. In addition, the Youth Guarantee now puts increased emphasis on achieving the goals of the European Green Deal through supporting employment in green jobs.  

The World Future Council and its partners, the Diputación de la Provincia de Cádiz, Universidad de Cádiz, FIAP e.V. , the  Sekretariat für Zukunftsforschung (Berlin) and Wind of Renewal (Greece), welcome the Commission’s initiative to “reinforce the Youth Guarantee” and advocate for adequate training of young people to create new jobs that are in line with the European Green Deal.  

Following on from the joint memorandum to the European Commission, submitted in May 2020, the World Future Council and its partners are now hosting an event on 12 November at 2pm CEST. 

The event will discuss if and how a Green Sector offers a unique chance to involve young women and men endangered by economic exclusion, in particular by implementing the goals set out in the European Green Deal (EGD) and the corresponding National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs). 

Confirmed keynote speakers are: 

• Prof. Dr. Lina Gálvez Muñoz, MEP, Vice Chair of Committee on Industry, Research and Energy 
• Max Uebe, European Commission, Head of Unit, Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion B1 Employment Strategy 
• Dr. Spiros Protopsaltis, Governor of OAED Manpower Employment Organization Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Vice Chair of European Network of Public Employment Services, Greece 

The hosts will encourage a moderated discussion with the following speakers: 

• Nikos Chrysogelos, Wind of Renewal: Youth unemployment, EYG and the challenges in Greece 
• Silke Steinberg, FIAP, e.V.: GRÆDUCATION: a systemic approach for innovative, green vocational training as change agent for labor markets  
• Afroditi Strati, providing insight from the perspective of Greek youth  
• Sandra García Lopez, Public Employment Service, Spanish Youth Guarantee Coordinator 
• Dr. Silke Karcher, German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety / EUKI (tbc) 
• Prof. Dr. Francisco José Sánchez de la Flor (Universidad de Cádiz): YesClima: Lifelong Education 
• Mario Férnandez Ardanaz, Vice-President of the Provincial Government of Cádiz 
• Paula García Rodríguez, providing insight from the perspective of Spanish youth  
• Ian Menzies, Senior Education Officer, Education Scotland: Scotland’s Youth employment strategy “Developing the young workforce” 

Contact

Samia Kassid
Senior Programme Manager – The Rights of Children and Youth
World Future Council
samia.kassid@worldfuturecouncil.org

Anna-Lara Stehn
Media & Communications Manager
World Future Council
anna-lara.stehn@worldfuturecouncil.org

About the World Future Council
The World Future Council (WFC) works to pass on a healthy and sustainable planet with just and peaceful societies to our children and grandchildren. To achieve this, we focus on identifying, developing, highlighting, and spreading effective, future-just solutions for current challenges humanity is facing, and promote their implementation worldwide. The Council consists of 50 eminent global change-makers from governments, parliaments, civil societies, academia, the arts, and the business world. Jakob von Uexkull, the Founder of the Alternative Nobel Prize, launched the World Future Council in 2007. We are an independent, non-profit organisation under German law and finance our activities with institutional partnerships and donations.