The president of the European Council proposed during the negotiations of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2014-2020 to create the Youth Employment Initiative. The Initiative will be open to all regions (at the NUTS level 2) and should provide funds to support youth employment for regions with levels of youth unemployment above25%.

The initiative should be granted €6 billion for the period 2014-2020:

• 3 000 million will come from targeted investment from the European Social Fund (ESF) and be distributed in regions proportionally to the number of unemployed youth,
• 3000 million will be dedicated from a newly created youth employment budget line. This fund will be allocated proportionally to the distribution of the ESF.

Note that the initiative will act in support of the youth employment package proposed by the Commission in December 2012.

Click here to read the reaction of the Committee of the Regions to this initiative
Get more information of the Commission programme on the youth employment package here

To be continued…