Activities of Inês Cristina ZUBER related to 2013/2045(INI)

Draft opinion
Paragraph A a (new)

Aa. whereas the EU is currently facing the worst economic and financial crisis since the great depression of the 1930s, a crisis aggravated by the so-called austerity measures that have been imposed on Member States by the EU institutions in the context of economic governance policies and 'financial assistance' programmes, and whereas this crisis is resulting in an exponential increase in unemployment, particularly among women under 25, for whom the unemployment rate stood at 10.9% in February 2013 (ranging between 5.1% in Germany and 26.6% in Spain),

2013/04/30
Committee: FEMM

Inês Cristina ZUBER, Marie-Christine VERGIAT, Lothar BISKY

Draft opinion
Paragraph A b (new)

Ab. whereas young people are one of the social groups most affected by the current deterioration in the labour market, being more exposed to unemployment, precarious employment and low wages, even though they have higher levels of education than previous generations,

2013/04/30
Committee: FEMM

Draft opinion
Paragraph A a (new)

Aa. whereas Member States have to provide a social safety net and guarantee decent living conditions for workers who become unemployed and for young people unable to find work;

2013/05/30
Committee: CULT

Inês Cristina ZUBER, Marie-Christine VERGIAT, Lothar BISKY

Draft opinion
Paragraph A c (new)

Ac. whereas the economic and financial crisis and the so-called austerity policies that have been imposed on Member States are leading to disinvestment in public services, particularly in the areas of health and education, resulting in job losses for thousands of teachers, nurses and other public servants, most of them women,

2013/04/30
Committee: FEMM

Draft opinion
Paragraph A b (new)

Ab. whereas as the economic and financial crisis has worsened and austerity has been imposed, especially in economically more fragile Member States, education budget cuts have been making access more difficult and undermining teaching standards; whereas the crisis and austerity policies are having a direct adverse impact on young people’s prospects for gaining access to, and remaining in, education and employment;

2013/05/30
Committee: CULT

Marie-Christine VERGIAT, Inês Cristina ZUBER, Lothar BISKY

Draft opinion
Paragraph B

B. whereas ~~early school leaving seriously hampers the economic and social development of the Union; whereas early school leavers are more often unemployed and at risk of social exclus~~social inequalities within education systems, which are often linked to the lack of sufficient – and appropriate – human and financial resources, early school leaving and failure to achieve educational qualifications, have a considerable impact on young people’s employability, since early school leavers are more often unemployed and at risk of social exclusion and, consequently, seriously hamper the economic and social development of the Union;

2013/05/30
Committee: CULT

Motion for a resolution
Recital A

A. whereas in January 2013 23 % of active young people were jobless, with the rates ranging from 15 % or less in Austria, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands to over 55 % in Greece and Spain, indicating marked geographical differences; Notes that in many member states different categories of young people, e.g. underemployed part-time workers or people sanctioned for not complying with 'workfare' schemes, are not included in these figures and that the real figures on youth unemployment are higher;

2013/05/28
Committee: EMPL

Marie-Christine VERGIAT, Inês Cristina ZUBER, Lothar BISKY

Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)

Ca. Whereas youth unemployment is an important contributing factor to the sharp rise in migration that is taking place in a number of member states, seen most profoundly in the so-called 'PIIGS'; Whereas this massive emigration has deprived these countries of an important layer of their most dynamic people and has a devastation effect on local communities;

2013/05/28
Committee: EMPL

Draft opinion
Paragraph 1

1. Is strongly concerned at the budget cuts by Member States in the field of education, training and youth~~, and recalls~~; notes, in particular, the adverse effects of structural reforms and associated austerity programmes in terms of youth unemployment in some Member States, particularly in Southern Europe, which is leading to a significant brain-drain to other countries, including non-EU countries; recalls, therefore, that budget allocations to education and training should be perceived as a necessary and invaluable investment for the future;

2013/05/30
Committee: CULT

Inês Cristina ZUBER, Marie-Christine VERGIAT, Lothar BISKY

Draft opinion
Paragraph 1

1. Is strongly concerned at the budget cuts by Member States in the field of education, training and youth, and recalls that budget allocations to education and training should be perceived as a necessary and invaluable investment for the future; condemns any increases in tuition fees for state higher education, a measure which several Member States are considering or have already implemented; urges the Member States to ensure that no student is denied access to, or prevented from remaining in, the various levels of education for economic reasons;

2013/05/30
Committee: CULT

Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)

1a. Stresses that making the Youth Guarantee a reality requires public investments that will promote net job creation, create permanent jobs with proper employment contracts, and respect collective bargaining for wages and the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value;

2013/04/30
Committee: FEMM

Inês Cristina ZUBER, Marie-Christine VERGIAT, Lothar BISKY

Motion for a resolution
Recital D

D. whereas young people are particularly disadvantaged during economic crises, more so than most groups; raises in this regard the detrimental effect of the move towards more flexible contracts which is particularly strong among young workers leading to them having a disproportionate rate of precarious contracts and therefore be the first to suffer from unemployment; whereas for many young people current unemployment can be expected to turn into long-term unemployment, which brings risks of social exclusion; whereas this has alarming consequences for young individuals, lowering their self-esteem, leaving their ambitions unrealised, and delaying their assumption of an independent adult life including starting a family, and consequently also for society, negatively impacting on the social, economic and demographic situation in Europe;

2013/05/28
Committee: EMPL

Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)

1a. Urges the Member States to consider whether they might abolish enrolment and tuition fees, whose effects, aggravated by the current economic and social crisis, constitute yet another barrier to access to, and continued study in, state higher education; urges the Member States to increase their education budgets, especially where student grants and social support are concerned, so as to ensure that students will not be forced to take a job or get into debt while they are still studying;

2013/05/30
Committee: CULT

Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)

1b. Stresses that the European Youth Guarantee must not promote or support precarious employment practices, that posts associated with this scheme must correspond to jobs with proper conditions and wages, and that traineeships must take account of young people's qualifications, whereby wages should always be paid and collective labour agreements and national legislation on the minimum wage complied with;

2013/04/30
Committee: FEMM

Inês Cristina ZUBER, Marie-Christine VERGIAT, Lothar BISKY

Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 c (new)

1c. Stresses that young people under 30 must be able to benefit from the European Youth Guarantee;

2013/04/30
Committee: FEMM

Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)

1b. Notes that, because of the economic and financial crisis, many families can no longer afford to pay for higher education, a fact which has led to an increase in drop-out rates at this level; considers that Member States should ensure that all persons, whatever their economic circumstances, can enjoy the right to free and universal education of a high quality;

2013/05/30
Committee: CULT

Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 d (new)

1d. Strongly recommends to the Member States that they boost investment in public services, particularly primary care health services, re-focusing on health promotion and disease prevention;

2013/04/30
Committee: FEMM

Motion for a resolution
Recital D a (new)

Da. whereas Member States have to provide a social safety net and guarantee decent living conditions for workers who become unemployed and for young people unable to find work;

2013/05/28
Committee: EMPL

Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 e (new)

1e. Urges the Member States to enhance the status of healthcare professionals through decent wages and working conditions;

2013/04/30
Committee: FEMM

Marie-Christine VERGIAT, Inês Cristina ZUBER, Lothar BISKY

Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 f (new)

1f. Strongly recommends to the Member States that they boost investment in public education, strengthening its democratic outlook and pedagogical organisation, upgrading school curricula, improving working conditions in schools, guaranteeing universal free access to high-quality and inclusive educational and social provision and thereby combating school failure and dropout;

2013/04/30
Committee: FEMM

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2

2. ~~Calls f~~Highlights the impor tan ~~increased use of dual education systems which combine theoretical and practical teaching; highlights the importance of VET~~ce of VET, including lifelong training, in striking the right balance between education and labour market demand; considers that the promotion of VET should not be done at the expense of higher education; emphasises the importance of improving quality standards in higher education;

2013/05/30
Committee: CULT

Motion for a resolution
Recital D b (new)

Db. whereas as the economic and financial crisis has worsened and austerity has been imposed, emigration from the Member States in the most severe difficulty has been increasing at an accelerating rate; whereas a new category of emigrants has emerged, namely young people, more often than not highly qualified;

2013/05/28
Committee: EMPL

Motion for a resolution
Recital E

E. whereas in the context of the Lisbon Strategy 2000-2010 the EU has undertaken to raise education levels, reduce school drop-out rates to less than 10% by 2020, and increase the rate of completion of tertiary or equivalent education to at least 40%; whereas several Member States have increased or are thinking of increasing tuition fees in higher education;

2013/05/28
Committee: EMPL

Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)

Ea. whereas more and more teachers have been losing their jobs in some countries being ‘bailed out’ by the Troika, and, as a result, teaching standards are declining, schools are being closed, curricula are being pared down, and academic failure and school drop-out rates are rising; whereas the higher student-teacher ratios resulting from the cuts are translating into lower teaching standards in the education system, the goal of which should be to enable teachers to follow the school careers of their pupils more closely;

2013/05/28
Committee: EMPL

Inês Cristina ZUBER, Marie-Christine VERGIAT, Lothar BISKY

Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)

Ea. Whereas the liberalisation of the education system, for instance through the Bologna process, and the austerity policies imposed in various member states have undone many of the steps towards a more accessible education system; stresses therefore the need for an education system that is publicly owned, democratically run, accessible to all and free at the point of use;

2013/05/28
Committee: EMPL

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)

2a. Points out that more and more teachers have been losing their jobs in some countries being ‘bailed out’ by the Troika and, as a result, teaching standards are declining, schools are being closed, curricula are being pared down, and academic failure and school drop-out rates are rising; notes that the higher student-teacher ratios resulting from the cuts are translating into lower teaching standards in the education system, the goal of which should be to enable teachers to follow the school careers of their pupils more closely;

2013/05/30
Committee: CULT

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)

2a. Highlights the importance of promoting measures designed to reconcile professional, personal and family life, a positive consequence of which will be to boost the participation of women from all sections of society in social and political life, measures that will involve strengthening the public network of day nurseries, crèches and public recreational activities for children, and developing the public support network for the elderly and a public network of community hospitals;

2013/04/30
Committee: FEMM

Inês Cristina ZUBER, Lothar BISKY

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)

2b. Takes the view that helping women to return to the labour market requires multidimensional policy solutions incorporating lifelong learning and action to combat precarious work and promote work with rights and differentiated work organisation practices, at the woman's request, so that they do not have to give up their careers or take career breaks;

2013/04/30
Committee: FEMM

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)

2b. Calls on the Member States to provide in their education policies for extracurricular placements to help students acquire experience in their chosen field, thereby enabling them to consolidate their knowledge and forge links with the workplace; maintains that Member States should regulate work placements in the proper manner, encompassing them under the heading of student training, and that unpaid placements should be prohibited; stresses that placements of this kind must on no account serve as substitutes for jobs;

2013/05/30
Committee: CULT

Motion for a resolution
Recital G a (new)

Ga. Whereas austerity policies implemented across Europe have not led to an economic recovery or job growth; whereas more and more economists clearly indicate that austerity policies have had the opposite effect: depressing economic growth and destroying jobs;

2013/05/28
Committee: EMPL

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1

1. Stresses that the policy measures implemented by Member States need to be diversified and should tackle all potential obstacles in young people's pathway to ~~sustainable employment~~meaningful, sustainable, well paid, decent employment with full trade union rights, paying particular attention to vulnerable groups that are more likely to suffer from multiple disadvantages;

2013/05/28
Committee: EMPL

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2

2. Stresses that the involvement of all relevant stakeholders, including trade unions, training and education providers, ~~individual employers, public and private~~student organisations, youth organisations, public employment services, social partners, third-sector organisations, and health and other authorities, is essential for the successful implementation of a variety of measures fostering youth employment and employability in an integrated fashion; emphasises that measures must be flexible so as to meet the ~~continuously evolving needs on the labour marke~~needs of young people best;

2013/05/28
Committee: EMPL

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3

3. Recognises the particularly difficult situation in certain regions where the level of unemployment among young people is above 25 %; welcomes the fact that EU support for youth employment will be further boosted through the proposed EU Youth Employment Initiative, with a budget of EUR 6 billion over the seven- year period 2014-2020; regrets however the moderate ambitions of the YEI and the fact that the funding allocated is far below what would be necessary to have a real impact on youth unemployment; Refers in this context to the ILO study 'Euro Zone job crisis: trends and policy responses' that raises the need for 21 billion euro to be injected to have an impact on the level of youth unemployment2; __________________ 2 http://www.ilo.org/global/research/publica tions/WCMS_184965/lang--en/index.htm

2013/05/28
Committee: EMPL

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)

3a. Maintains that the EU Youth Employment Initiative must serve to ensure that jobs are preserved in beneficiary companies, that the initiative itself is not turned into a new form of precarious working arrangement, and that work placements, once completed, will be converted into open-ended contracts;

2013/05/28
Committee: EMPL

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4

4. Welcomes the decision of the EPSCO Council on 28 February 2013 to agree on a Council recommendation on implementing a Youth Guarantee; recommends extending eligibility to ~~graduates~~young people aged u~~nder~~p to 30; stresses that the success of this measure will be highly dependent on other factors, e.g. the infrastructure and capacity of public and strengthened private employment services, the availability of ~~student places~~places for young people, the provision of training and, apprenticeships, and the transferability and implementation of successful experiences from other Member States; stresses that the Youth Guarantee must be integrated within the broader framework of active labour market policies while ensuring high quality standards;

2013/05/28
Committee: EMPL

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)

5a. Maintains that that such support for enterprises, cooperatives, and third-sector organisations should be of an exceptional and temporary nature and subject to explicit undertakings given in return, in particular to preserve jobs, observe the standards laid down in national law and collective labour agreements, and fulfil tax and social security obligations; believes that support of this kind should be publicised and made known to workers and their representative organisations, and that employers should be required to post information on company premises, in places readily accessible to workers, specifying the support received, its purpose, and the way in which it is to be implemented;

2013/05/28
Committee: EMPL

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 b (new)

5b. Believes that work placements should be supervised and followed up to more useful effect and permanent contracts concluded when permanent posts are to be filled in entities receiving support;

2013/05/28
Committee: EMPL

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)

6a. Maintains that all unemployed persons receiving support should be monitored so as to enable each worker’s specific training, skills, and, where applicable, vocational retraining needs to be determined at the time when job offers are being assessed and after a worker has accepted a job, the object being to ascertain whether the conditions laid down are being complied with and how far the worker has adapted to the circumstances;

2013/05/28
Committee: EMPL

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)

10a. Considers that education and/or training establishments must arrange extracurricular placements so as to provide students with experience in their chosen field as a means of consolidating their knowledge and forging links with the workplace;

2013/05/28
Committee: EMPL

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 b (new)

10b. Maintains that Member States should regulate work placements in the proper manner, encompassing them under the heading of student training, and that unpaid placements should be prohibited;

2013/05/28
Committee: EMPL

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11

11. Calls on the Member States to ensure high-quality frameworks for traineeships making sure that traineeships are tailored to the needs of young people and include decent wages, labour rights and working conditions that do not undermine the wages and conditions of the existing workforce, backed up by financial support and mandatory monitoring, as well as a common quality standard for traineeships and work placements; stresses that active promotion and awareness-raising in respect of such programmes is needed ~~among entrepreneurs~~;

2013/05/28
Committee: EMPL

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12

12. Emphasises that the Alliance for Apprenticeship should also support European and national campaigns for changing perceptions of vocational education, thereby ensuring that students undergoing training of this kind will be placed on an equal footing with other students as regards access to higher education, and should organise a regular forum for discussions on the monitoring of the European apprenticeship strategy with all relevant European and national stakeholders; stresses that incentives should also be provided to facilitate funding for cross-border training activities enabling companies and social partner organisations to become involved in establishing dual education systems;

2013/05/28
Committee: EMPL

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)

12a. Stresses that in no way traineeships should be used to replace people who were hired on regular contracts or undermine their wages and working conditions; stresses therefore that all trainees, interns or people in vocational training should receive decent wages and conditions and that they should have full trade union rights;

2013/05/28
Committee: EMPL

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13

13. Encourages the Member States to ~~foster~~support the mobility of young workers by means of further progress towards the mutual recognition of qualifications and skills and enhanced coordination of national social security systems, especially as regards pension systems, as well as by continuing to invest substantially in language learning;

2013/05/28
Committee: EMPL

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17

17. Calls on the Member States to develop personalised career counselling and guidance, starting already during secondary school, with the aim of enabling young people to make well-informed choices about their higher education~~, while introducing mechanisms that can monitor the opportunities offered and assess~~; stresses that all counselling should be based solely on the interests, needs and aspirations of young people and not the requirements of the private sector; calls on member states to introduce mechanisms that can monitor the success rate of ~~those~~ young people's subsequent transition to work;

2013/05/28
Committee: EMPL

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 a (new)

17a. Notes that, because of the economic and financial crisis, many families can no longer afford to pay for higher education, with the result that drop-out rates at this level have increased; considers that Member States should ensure that all persons, regardless of their economic circumstances, can enjoy the right to free universal education of a high quality;

2013/05/28
Committee: EMPL

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 a (new)

18a. Stresses the need to immediately halt all austerity policies;

2013/05/28
Committee: EMPL