In March, the
\nRomanian capital city Bucharest hosted several events that brought into the
\nspotlight the situation of NEET youth, that is young people aged between 15 and
\n24, who are not in education, employment or training. In other words, they are
\nnot registered in any system. The participants in these events discussed
\npossible solutions for the integration of these young people who account for a
\nworrying large percentage of the population of Romania.<\/p>\n
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While in the
\nEuropean Union the NEET rate is dropping, now standing at an average of 12%, in
\nRomania this figure is at around 18%, according to statistics from 2011. This
\naccounts for between 400,000 and 500,000 young people, but there may be more,
\nbecause many are no longer registered with any institution. This is the context
\nin which a think-tank called Social DOers held a national conference where it
\nlaunched the European Coalition for the Rights of Young NEETs. The platform is
\nfinanced under the Erasmus+ programme and was launched in January in Brussels.
\nThe idea underlying the platform is that this is not only a national problem,
\nbut one that exists in other EU member countries as well. Veronica Stefan, the
\nhead of the Social DOers association explains:<\/p>\n
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\n
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This pilot
\ninitiative is looking at the specific situation in six countries. Romania is
\none of them, but we also looked at countries like the UK and Austria, which
\nhave very low rates for this category of young people. We also looked at
\ncountries like Portugal, Italy and Belgium. We reached the conclusion that we
\nneed to join forces. On the one hand, we need a platform allowing the NGOs that
\nprovide services to these young people to work with social partners, like trade
\nunions and employers associations, as well as political partners, namely the
\npolitical decision-makers. The platform targets these three categories: NGOs,
\ntrade union and employer structures and European MPs, because they are the
\ndirect link between the decisions made at EU level and the citizens of all
\nmember states.<\/p>\n
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Victor Negrescu,
\nof the European Socialists and Democrats, is one of the MEPs concerned with the
\nproblems of young people, particularly those in the NEET category. He says that
\nwhile there are many EU programmes designed to support the young, there are
\nalso shortcomings:<\/p>\n
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\n
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A lot of these
\nprogrammes look at youth problems as a global, general issue. There aren’t
\nenough customised approaches that specifically target the NEET youth and, more
\nimportantly, that help these young people, 21 million in the whole of the EU,
\nto experience the benefits of these European programmes. During the talks in
\nBucharest, my stand was that we should tailor these programmes to the actual
\nneeds of these young people, and that we should start by identifying these
\nneeds at a local level, which has not been done properly so far.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
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That inactive young
\npeople account for nearly half a million of the country’s population may not
\nsound that bad, but things are a great deal worse in reality. As they grow
\nolder, these young people remain inactive and their number in their respective
\ncategory grows. If young people under the age of 25 account for a mere 18%,
\ntheir percentage increases to 25 by the time they reach 30 and stays at a
\nlittle over 20 by the time they reach 35. This is how a generation of inactive
\nyoung people is created, young people who don’t produce anything. Veronica
\nStefan says this is both an economic problem and an economic cost:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
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A European agency
\nestimated that in 2011 Romania spent, or, better said, lost, 1.54% of its GDP,
\naccounting for around two billion euros. This means that nearly half a million
\nyoung people in this situation received the minimum amount of social benefits, but
\nthey contributed nothing. So the economic cost they generate amounts to
\napproximately two billion euros. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
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Considering that both Romania and Europe in
\ngeneral are faced with the problem of population ageing, and therefore need as
\nmany people in employment as possible, it is important to find a solution very
\nquickly. That is exactly what the European Coalition for the Rights of
\nYoung NEETs platform aims to do.
\nVeronica Stefan tells us more: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
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What we’re hoping to do by bringing
\ntogether all the players involved is to get the NGOs with easiest access and
\nfriendliest services for young people to act as mediators between institutions
\nand these young people who can no longer extricate themselves from the
\nsituation or who may not necessarily want to do it too quickly. We also aim to
\nwork with institutions to help them create more flexible policies. So far, we
\nhave focused mainly on tapping European funds through projects rather than
\nprogrammes. Projects last for a few years and it’s hard to keep track of these people
\nonce the projects are over. What’s important is to have continuous programmes,
\nwith a much more friendly approach and focusing specifically on these young
\npeople.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
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In conclusion, what needs to be done is to
\nidentify the young people who are not in employment, education or training,
\nmonitor their situation and provide them with specific solutions. National
\nprogrammes are also needed, backed by public policies. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In March, the Romanian capital city Bucharest hosted several events that brought into the spotlight the situation of NEET youth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":141743,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42997],"tags":[43608],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-142303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-today","tag-neet-youth"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n