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Jean Arthuis, chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Budgets

Conference opening speech

A Europe of talents: giving new impetus to skills acquisition through mobility for apprentices
2 June 2015, EESC

"WE NEED TO COMBINE THE PRESTIGIOUS ERASMUS BRAND WITH APPRENTICESHIPS, THE BEST ROUTE TO JOBS"

Mr Malosse, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am delighted to welcome you at the start of our conference on apprentice mobility in Europe. We want to make it a springboard for dual vocational training. It is my honour to address you on behalf of a group of MEPs representing most of Europe's regions and belonging to the Parliament's various political groups. We want to put forward, starting from tomorrow, a pilot project to promote apprenticeships using two delivery systems: mobility and a single regulatory framework covering all the EU's twenty-eight Member States.

The idea is to use dedicated funding to map out the situation as it stands and identify current practices, especially in border areas (between Saarland and Lorraine, Alsace and Baden-Württemberg), so that experiments can first be carried out and then assessed after the first year. At the same time, we shall have to start legal scrutiny of national laws with a view to bringing them into line with one another. This examination will cover skills recognition, validation and equivalence of qualifications, insurance schemes, conditions in the training institutions and contractual relations between young people and businesses. Today, thanks to you, twenty-four EU countries are represented here to discuss these matters. I would like particularly to greet and thank the president of the European Economic and Social Committee, Mr Malosse, whose guests we are today, for his hospitality. I would also like to mention, and thank, MsSchweng, president of the Labour Market Observatory, and the chairs and speakers of each of our three round tables. The thing that unites us this morning is our shared rejection of youth unemployment and our shared desire to find a solution to it.

Youth unemployment in Europe is by its very nature a scandal. It causes stress for the young people affected and for their families. It fosters uncertainty among teachers and trainers and it discredits our society, casting a shadow over its future. It affects one young person in four in the European Union. In some countries, however, the figure is more than one in two. But there is nothing inevitable about this, because in some countries less than one in ten young people is unemployed. These are countries that operate and develop a genuine apprenticeship culture based on trust between business and teachers. Germany, Austria and the Netherlands – and I am tempted to add Switzerland, though it is not yet a member of the EU – offer telling examples. We have a duty to follow their lead. The second point that I would like to make is that students who have had the opportunity to spend at least one year of their studies outside their home country, encouraged by a grant from Erasmus, are in general better protected against the risk of unemployment.

These are the findings that dictate the goals, scope and substance of our project. How can we promote apprenticeships? How can we improve them by using mobility within Europe? It is true that apprentices can already benefit from work experience outside their home countries thanks to the Leonardo programme, now transformed into Erasmus+. But these are brief periods and without long-term immersion the benefits, both professional and linguistic, are too slight. Moreover, employers and placement or apprenticeship supervisors are reluctant to allow young people to leave their company when they still have to pay them during their absence. There are also questions of accident insurance, social security, recognition of diplomas, and rules relating to working time and the degree of danger of the machinery used. The goal of extending placements abroad to one year means the age of apprentices eligible for mobility will have to be raised. All these hurdles and impediments must be identified and studied. The fact is that if the number of experiments is increasing despite the many difficulties, this is because of the courage of those concerned, their teachers and their employers. Even the most determined have to admit that it is a real "drag". This is why there are not enough of them. So it is time to break new ground, perhaps in some cases to go back to the drawing board and chart a clear and stable way ahead. If we manage to agree on the diagnosis and the proposals, we are bound to achieve our purpose.

Europe will not be able to achieve sustainable growth and reverse employment trends unless it does away with the fragmentation of its territory by abolishing national regulatory barriers and aligning tax and social laws. At the end of the day, laying down a single regulatory framework for apprenticeships means – does it not? – taking the first step in laying the foundations of a European labour law. And promoting mobility: isn't this a chance to enrich ourselves by discovering good professional practice and to lend substance and meaning to European citizenship?

Our heads of state and government are quick to launch initiatives for youth employment. For this they should be congratulated. But this has to be more than just handing out extra public funds. Some countries are still unable to train all their young people and give them jobs locally. Our proposal aims to make the political commitment credible. With my fellow MEPs, we propose to launch a formal appeal to our respective governments. But to move forward, we need to rally all those of goodwill – social partners, business, and vocational training institutions. That means each and every one of you. It is our responsibility to create the momentum. I am pleased to say that we are not on our own in this. Jacques Delors' Notre Europe foundation, for example, has just issued a series of proposals which point in the same direction. Indeed, various tools, web portals and individual sources of funding (such as the ESF and the Youth Employment Initiative) already exist. The important thing is to coordinate them, create synergies and provide publicity. I also want to pay tribute to Ms Guy-Quint, initiator of an Erasmus+ for apprenticeships to replace the Leonardo programme.

As you can see, we want to put an end to the discrimination between students and apprentices. In other words, we want Erasmus to fund long placements – at least one year. The good news is that the Commission has just published its budget for 2016. The appropriations earmarked for financing Erasmus have risen by 30% in payment appropriations compared to 2015, plus 7% in commitments. We can only hope that the Council will let this stand or even improve on it. Parliament will encourage it to do so.

Paradoxically, apprenticeships have been running out of steam for some years now, even in Germany. So we need to waste no time coupling apprenticeships – this "fast track" to getting a job – with the prestige brand in facilitating mobility, Erasmus.

Ladies and gentlemen,
As you can see, I am investing a lot of hope in today's conference to put the seal of approval on our pilot project. What you have to say, your input, criticisms and recommendations will enable us to move forward. I would like to thank you for this and I hope that our discussions will live up to your expectations and will give us the means to inspire all young people with confidence in themselves and confidence in Europe.

Jean Arthuis is an MEP for the West France constituency, a member of the ALDE group and chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Budgets. A former French finance minister, senator for Mayenne and chairman of the senate's finance committee, he is convinced that France cannot go it alone. Europe is our last chance, and he believes wholeheartedly in a federal arrangement. The purpose of this website is to show the relevance of his ideas and his political commitment to western France, to France as a whole, and to Europe.

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