es es documento de trabajo - European Parliament

PARLAMENTO EUROPEO
2014 - 2019
Comisión de Control Presupuestario
26.3.2015
DOCUMENTO DE TRABAJO
sobre el Informe Especial n° 3/2015 del Tribunal de Cuentas de la Unión
Europea (aprobación de la gestión 2014): Garantía Juvenil de la UE: Se han
dado los primeros pasos pero la aplicación del programa presenta riesgos
Comisión de Control Presupuestario
Ponente: Karin Kadenbach
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Introduction
Over the last decade, and in particular since the beginning of the economic and financial
crisis, the number of unemployed people in the EU has increased considerably. The average
unemployment rate for young people aged between 15 and 24 was of 22% in the EU in June
2014, and in some Member States the jobless rate is as high as half of all young people The
gap between the countries with the highest and the lowest jobless rates for young people is
extremely high. There is a gap of 44 percentage points between the Member State with the
lowest rate of youth unemployment (Germany at 7.2% in December 2014) and the Member
State with the highest rate, Spain (51.4% in December 2014). Spain is followed by Greece
(50.6% in October 2014), Croatia (44.8% in the fourth quarter 2014) and Italy (42% in
December 2014).
The EU framework to combat youth unemployment was firstly launched in 2010 with the
"Youth on the Move" Europe 2020 flagship initiative (COM(2010) 744 final of 15 September
2010). In December 2011, the Commission proposed a "Youth Opportunities Initiative"
(COM(2011) 933 final of 20 December 2011) and in January 2012 it announced that it would
work with the eight Member States most affected by youth unemployment by establishing
"Youth Action Teams" with a view to making better use of the EU funding still available
under the 2007-2013 programming period. The establishment of the "Youth Guarantee" was
adopted by the EU's Council of Ministers in April 2013 (Council Recommendation of 22
April 2013) and further endorsed by the June 2013 European Council (European Council
Conclusions, 27-28 June 2013).
In 2014 youth unemployment was still at alarmingly high levels within the EU and needed to
be urgently tackled.
The Youth Guarantee was created to support young people in finding a job and to implement
structural reform to improve school-to-work transitions. It promotes one of four alternative
offers - job, apprenticeship, traineeship or continued education - to young people which are
neither in employment nor in any education or training and should be delivered by the
Member States in accordance with national, regional and local circumstances.
The Youth Guarantee scheme is financed through the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI), the
European Social Fund (ESF) and from national budgets. The ESF is the most important
source of EU financing for it. The Commission latest estimations is that 3,2 billion euro from
the ESF are required to match YEI funding. The ESF can finance measures specifically
targeting individuals as well as those relating to structural reforms. To top up available EU
financial support to the most affected regions, the Council and the European Parliament
agreed to create a dedicated 6,4 billion euro Youth Employment Initiative. The YEI funding
consists of 3,2 billion euro from a specific new EU budget line dedicated to youth
employment which is to be matched by at least 3,2 billion euro from national allocations
under the ESF. Unlike the ESF part, the specific allocations for the YEI is not subject to the
national co-financing requirement and costs incurred by Member States since 1 September
2013 are eligible for reimbursement on a retrospective basis.
The International Labour Organisation has estimated the cost of setting up Youth Guarantees
in the Eurozone at €21 billion per year. However, the costs of NOT acting are far higher. The
European Foundation for Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) has estimated the
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economic loss in the EU of having millions of young people out of work, education or
training at over €150 billion in 2011 (1.2% of EU GDP), in terms of benefits paid out and lost
output.
The YEI is part of the overall ESF programming and approved either in specific YEI
Operational Programmes or as part of ESF Operational Programmes as a priority axis or even
as part of a priority axis. It is concentrated on regions experiencing youth unemployment rates
above 25% and on young people not in employment, education or training.
Assessment
Taking into account the above mentioned elements, the role of the Commission is to
encourage Member States to make best use of the ESF and the YEI to support the set-up and
implementation of Youth Guarantee schemes as policy instrument for combating and
preventing youth unemployment and social exclusion. In addition the Commission is required
to monitor the design, implementation and results of the YG schemes, analyse the impact of
the policies in place and address, where appropriate, country-specific recommendations to
Member States. On the other hand, the Member States commit to submit their Youth
Guarantee Implementation Plans to the Commission for assessment.
The Court assessed in this audit whether the Commission provided appropriate support to five
Member States (Ireland, Italy, Lithuania and Portugal - which had Youth Action Teams - and
France) in setting up the Youth Guarantee scheme and reviewed possible implementation
risks. The audit period went from April 2013 to June 2014 and included information provided
until February 2015.
The Court observed that the Commission produced guidance on designing Youth Guarantee
scheme and provided it to Member States within five months after the adoption of the Council
Recommendation in April 2013. It produced a template with key elements for building a
comprehensive implementation plan and published "Frequently Asked Questions" and
organised thematic events.
The Commission also carried out a comprehensive and timely assessment of the draft Youth
Guarantee Implementation Plans (YGIPs) submitted by Member States and identified many
shortcomings in those drafts. However, there are three elements which the Commission have
not properly tackled. The ICT/digital skills which were identified as having great potential for
the creation of sustainable jobs; the principle of mutual obligation which foresees on one side
the existence of individual responsibility in finding a route into economic activity through one
of the offers received and on the other the provision of unemployment or social assistance
benefits until the person gets a reasonable offer; and the principle of mutual learning between
all the parties involved at national regional or local levels in combating youth unemployment.
The Court observed as well that not all Member States submitted a revised YGIP following
the Commission's assessment identifying shortcomings. Moreover, the Court pointed out that
the Commission assessment of YGIPs was not sufficiently co-ordinated with its assessment of
the ex-ante conditionality for ESF/YEI operational programmes, which sets the strategic
policy framework for promoting youth employment.
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When analysing the enforcement, the Court identified a number of risks to the effective
implementation of the Youth Guarantee scheme. Firstly, the risk that the total funding may
not be adequate as there are no real figures for the cost of implementing the Youth Guarantee
in each Member State and no impact assessment carried out for those schemes. In addition,
the Court did not find any robust estimation of costs for specific measures, like the sources of
funding and its allocation to the different key reforms and measures in a financing plan, of the
Youth Guarantee schemes. With the particular challenge of verifying the regularity of the YEI
expenditure, that have been incurred since September 2013.
Secondly the lack of definition of good-quality job offer may hamper the effectiveness of the
Youth Guarantee.
Thirdly, a comprehensive Youth Guarantee monitoring and reporting framework is still being
developed. Currently the Commission monitors the implementation of YG through the multilateral surveillance of the Employment Committee1 within the framework of the European
Semester. However, the results are not reported to the European Parliament and, even if some
specific indicators were developed, as they are not mandatory, they result into varied input
from the different Member States. Furthermore, the Country Specific Recommendations
related to youth unemployment were not measurable and depend on political commitment at
national level. In addition, as the reporting on the nationally funded part of the YG is not
covered by the reporting obligations, there is the risk of having an uncompleted overview of
how and to what extent the YG as a whole contributes to tackling youth unemployment.
Finally, the Court has examined the relevance of the YEI result indicators as set out in the
ESF Regulation and considered that some of them could be more detailed when approving
future ESF/YEI Operational Programmes or amending the existing ones.
European Court of Auditors (ECA) conclusions
The Court concluded that the Commission provided adequate and timely support to the
Member States in the process of setting up the Youth Guarantee, and carried out a
comprehensive and timely assessment of the draft YGIPs submitted by the Member States,
having also identified several shortcomings. Some aspects lacked proper assessment.
The Court identified a number of risks relating to the adequacy of the total funding and the
nature of a ”good-quality offer” , as well as monitoring and reporting arrangements for the
Youth Guarantee scheme.
ECA recommendations
In light of its findings and in order to improve the effectiveness of the EU funding of the EU
Youth Guarantee, the ECA recommends that:
1
An advisory committee for Employment and Social Affairs Ministers in the Employment and Social Affairs
Council.
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1. The Member States should provide a clear and complete overview of the cost of all
planned measures to combat youth unemployment under the Youth Guarantee scheme in
order that the Commission can assess the overall funding needs;
2. The Commission should promote a set of qualitative attributes that should be fulfilled for
jobs, traineeships and apprenticeships to be supported from the EU budget. This could be
based on the elements which define a good-quality offer in the Commission Guidance for
evaluation of the YEI;
3. The Commission should put in place a comprehensive monitoring system for the Youth
Guarantee scheme, covering both structural reforms and measures targeting individuals.
The result of this monitoring should be reported to the European Parliament and the
Council.
Recomendaciones de la ponente para su posible inclusión en el informe de aprobación de
la gestión de la Comisión para 2014
Acoge con satisfacción el Informe especial del Tribunal titulado «Garantía juvenil de la UE:
Se han dado los primeros pasos pero la aplicación del programa presenta riesgos» y apoya las
recomendaciones que contiene;
Observa que el Tribunal está efectuando una evaluación intermedia de la iniciativa y celebra
la ambición del Tribunal a la hora de empezar a valorar el uso de los fondos de la UE en una
fase temprana;
Subraya que la Garantía Juvenil es un elemento esencial para hacer frente al desempleo de los
jóvenes; acoge con satisfacción que los jefes de Estado y de Gobierno de la UE hayan
decidido destinar 6 400 millones de euros a través de fondos de la Unión (3 200 millones de
euros del Fondo Social Europeo y 3 200 millones de euros procedentes de una nueva línea
presupuestaria); señala que, si bien ello constituye un buen punto de partida, no resulta
suficiente para que la Garantía Juvenil sea un éxito y pide por tanto a la Comisión que vele
por que se encuentren más fondos para apoyar la Garantía Juvenil a lo largo del periodo de
siete años;
Considera que la financiación de la Garantía Juvenil es sumamente compleja al contar con
varias opciones a través del Fondo Social Europeo (FSE) y la Iniciativa de Empleo Juvenil;
pide a la Comisión que facilite orientación a las autoridades de los Estados miembros
teniendo debidamente en cuenta que las autoridades locales, regionales y nacionales se
enfrentan a retos diferentes a la hora de llevar esta iniciativa a la práctica y, por consiguiente,
necesitan directrices específicas;
Opina que la Comisión ha destinado importantes recursos para garantizar que esta medida sea
eficaz para luchar contra el desempleo juvenil, pero lamenta que se haya puesto mucha menos
energía a la hora de coordinar su aplicación por parte de los Estados miembros;
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Señala que no solo la disponibilidad de los fondos, sino también una utilización satisfactoria
de los mismos son condiciones necesarias para la aplicación eficaz de la Garantía Juvenil;
lamenta por tanto que, en varias regiones de Europa, el índice de utilización del FSE sea muy
bajo; pide a los Estados miembros que garanticen las competencias administrativas y de
recursos humanos necesarias para una utilización satisfactoria de los fondos asignados con
miras a la aplicación de la Garantía Juvenil;
Pide a la Comisión que elabore un sistema global de supervisión que abarque una serie de
normas para evaluar la aplicación de las medidas de la Garantía Juvenil y su eficiencia en los
Estados miembros; pide asimismo a la Comisión que examine la posibilidad de incluir
objetivos obligatorios para la lucha contra el desempleo juvenil en el marco del Semestre
europeo;
Señala que la UE no dispone de competencias vinculantes en lo que respecta a las políticas
activas del mercado laboral, pero destaca la necesidad de que la Comisión ofrezca a los
Estados miembros ejemplos de buenas prácticas sobre la manera de aplicar la Garantía
Juvenil;
Pide a los Estados miembros que, con objeto de garantizar una aplicación satisfactoria y un
impacto positivo a largo plazo, procedan a los cambios institucionales que resulten necesarios
y cooperen con las entidades locales, las autoridades educativas, los servicios públicos de
empleo, la industria y el comercio locales, los sindicatos y las asociaciones juveniles;
Acoge con satisfacción la propuesta de la Comisión por la que se modifica el Reglamento
nº 1304/2013 relativo al Fondo Social Europeo, a favor de un aumento del importe de la
prefinanciación inicial abonada a los programas operativos apoyados por la Iniciativa de
Empleo Juvenil, en la que se propone aumentar la prefinanciación inicial en 2015 de
aproximadamente un 1 % a un 30 % para la asignación destinada a la Iniciativa de Empleo
Juvenil; señala que, con objeto de permitir una rápida ejecución de los programas operativos
apoyados por la Iniciativa de Empleo Juvenil, la Comisión debe comprometerse a abonar el
importe de prefinanciación a los Estados miembros inmediatamente después de la entrada en
vigor de dicho Reglamento;
Considera que las políticas del mercado laboral en relación con la oferta deben considerarse
conjuntamente con las políticas de educación, juventud y bienestar, así como en un contexto
macroeconómico más amplio.
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