EU youth employment initiative made "limited proposals": European Court of Auditors

Youth Action Teams, an EU initiative set up by the European Commission, did succeed in redirecting money towards support for young people, but only limited proposals, according to a new report from the European Court of Auditors released Thursday.

The Youth Action Teams was set up in 2012, as part of its youth opportunities initiative. It aimed at helping the member states affected by youth unemployment to redirect unallocated structural funds to projects which would make the biggest difference in the shortest time.

Auditors found the project made limited proposals in this regard. According to a statement released Thursday, auditors found shortcomings in how the EU's executive body monitored and reported results.

While the initiative led to reprogramming and reallocation of European Social Funds, the team's assessment of operational program amendments focused mainly on their impact on the budget, their statement said.

"One of the critical issues that the EU faces today is youth unemployment. It has recently shown a slight decrease, but still remains unacceptably high. So EU funds should support effective measures which will deliver real results on the ground as quickly as possible," said Iliana Ivanova, the member of the Court of Auditors responsible for the report.

The auditors' findings led them to conclude that expectations for such initiatives need to be better managed where there is a potential gap between what is promised and what can realistically be delivered by the European Commission.

While about 1.9 billion euros (2.08 billion U.S. dollars) of funds were redirected, a broader-based, more sustained and longer-term initiative is necessary if structural funds are to reduce youth unemployment effectively, said the auditors. Endite