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EYMD 2013: National problems, European solutions? A Gay-Friendly Employer? p. 22 | Jobless, Hopeless and Divided p. 16 Any job won’t do p. 18 | Brain Drain p. 12
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EU Employment Initiatives: The Solutions
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Job vacancy: No crisis in Europe
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Generation Entrepreneur?
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Higher Education abroad = Brain Drain?
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European professional card: a revolution for EU job seekers
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Jobless, hopeless and divided
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Any job won’t do
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Travel broadens the mind but can it get you a job?
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A gay-friendly employer?
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Restrictions that help nobody imprint
Orange Magazine European Youth Press, Rue de la Tourelle 23, BE-1040, Brussels, Belgium All articles do not necessarily represent the opinions of the magazine. Cover Image mmagallan / SXC Editor-in-Chief Bettina Benzinger (Germany)
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Layout Designers Tomas Lacika (Slovakia) Petri Vanhanen (Finland) Proofreaders Tara Cunningham (Ireland) Aileen Donegan (Ireland) Additional Photos Stock.XCHNG (SCX) Public Domain Photos
Journalists Tressia Boukhors (France) Tara Cunningham (Ireland) Aileen Donegan (Ireland) Maria-Christina Doulami (Greece) Mateusz Jazdzewski (Poland) Pekka Leiviskä (Finland) Merle Must (Estonia) Olimpia Parje (Romania) Elena Roda (Italy) Mihael Topolovec (Slovenia)
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The Two Sides of the Coin Text by Bettina Benzinger, Germany
A quick Google search for ‘unemployment in the EU’ results in numerous websites citing unemployment rates and describing its rising trend in the EU states. The European Commission through its Directorate-General Eurostat talks about ‘record levels’ of more than 26 million people in the EU-28 in August this year. With more than 10%, the unemployment rate exceeded the two-digit line a while ago. For the euro-area the rates are at 12%. We read about challenges and hurdles, about mechanisms and processes that do not yet work smoothly. What are those things that go wrong? Where and how does the Union have to improve in order to be a reliable partner for its European citizens? Unemployment and connected challenges are one side of the coin. Opportunities and strengthening
strengths are the other side: Those who figure in unemployment rates are at the same time the EU's potential: job seekers are resources. However, the Union has to learn how to make this resource work for itself and to provide guidance in troubled water. How to grow the potential of the EU's job seekers to make the job market flourish? Which approaches, measures and opportunities are already existent to support job seekers and to allow a smooth entry into the European labour market? The labour market is more than unemployment figures. It is actual lives of people. They are, for example, students who migrate in the hope for better chances, young graduates who are highly qualified and aim to get their foot into the labour market's door or experienced professionals. They are men and women, gays and lesbians, young and old, from different European regions. And they all have to figure in directives, legislations, support programs and other EU initiatives in order to have a Union that exits for its people. g
European Youth Press European Youth Press is an umbrella association of young journalists in Europe. It involves more than 50,000 journalists working for university magazines, Internet projects, radio and video productions, or are interns in editor-rooms, freelance journalists, journalism students or trainees. With print magazines or blogs, podcasts and v-casts, the association wants to give young media makers from all over Europe the opportunity to cooperate directly with each other. Above all, the aim of all member associations and the umbrella structure is to inspire young people to deal with media and take an active part in society by fostering objective and independent journalism. Orange magazine Fresh. Vibrant. Creative. Orange Magazine provides journalistic education and supports young journalists by giving them room to explore media and current affairs. Writers and photographers from different countries with diverse backgrounds make this magazine unique. They create multi-faced magazines with new and interesting contents. Creating it means having an exciting time in an ever changing environment. Reading it means getting facts and opinions directly from young and innovative journalists.
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EU Employment Initiatives: The Solutions Text and Photos by Tara Cunningham, Ireland
Is the EU merely sticking a plaster on the gaping wound of youth unemployment? 4
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Paul Murphy
‘Be the arrow, not the target’; this was the closing statement of President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins at the Being Young and Irish seminar held in Dublin last year. In 2012, President Higgins called on the young people of Ireland to take charge of change, and to share their vision of Ireland’s vision with them. It is a mantra to be applied across the EU in its entirety, as young people in particular struggle to find employment. To ‘be the arrow’ in a difficult economic climate requires immense commitment to the EU, willingness to migrate internally and opening your eyes to the possibilities that lie within the EU labour market. The EU offers a plethora of initiatives in conjunction with ‘Europe 2020’, an agenda for new skills and jobs, which aims to achieve an employment target of having 75% of the EU population aged between 24-64 years in employment by 2020. ‘I think all of the good targets in Europe 2020 are not going to be met. One in four young people in Europe are unemployed, 6 million across the EU. There are incredible rates of youth unemployment in Greece and Spain, and they are getting worse’, said Paul Murphy, MEP, Committee of Employment and Social Affairs. MEP, Emer Costello, believes that although the target is very ambitious it is very important that the EU aim for it. “We have to do our best to get there. In the current climate it’s difficult, but certainly the initiatives taken by the EU will actually help us achieve these targets”, she said. The initiatives taken by the EU to achieve this target include: EURES, established in 1993, is a co-operation network between the European Commission and the Public Employment Services of the EEA Member States. The EURES job mobility portal is a tool utilised for posting vacant jobs from across Europe. According to the May 2013 edition of the European Job Mobility Bulletin,
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on May 1st 2013, over 1.3 million vacant posts were posted on the portal. ‘Your first EURES job’ is an initiative launched in 2012 to support young EU nationals aged between 18-30 years in their quest to find employment in another EU country. The initiative at large reduces job mobility obstacles that often hinder free movement of workers in Europe by facilitating the transition into the EU Labour Market. A noteworthy example is SMEs (Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises who employ up to 250 staff); between 2002 and 2010 they were responsible for the creation of 85% of new jobs in the EU. Yet few SMEs recruit staff from other member states citing a language and socio-cultural barrier. Financial support offered by ‘Your first EURES job’ now enables SMEs to recruit from any EU member state. “We have more support coming through for SMEs, programmes such as COSME (Programme for the Competitiveness of enterprises and SMEs)”, Emer added. European Jobs Mobility Bulletin (EJMB) is a quarterly newsletter published by DG Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion of the European Commission which analyses vacancies posted on the EURES jobs portal by national public employment services. By also listing the ‘Top 5’ vacant posts for individual countries in the bulletin, it signals to jobseekers that if they are capable of speaking the language of the host country, that there are indeed job opportunities in Europe for people with the relevant skill set. “I was at a meeting last week with the European Commissioner he made an interesting point, that many Europeans use mobility to go to countries where they have a linguistic affinity as opposed to where they have a geographic affinity. He added that there are many jobs available in Germany that are not being taken
up by Irish or English people because of language barriers. This is certainly an issue”, Emer said. The European Vacancy Monitor (EVM) provides a detailed overview of the latest developments within the European Labour Market, collating data on job vacancies and hiring, documenting trends in occupational demand and skill requirements. It is hoped this publication will increase labour market transparency for all stakeholders who require information about the EU Labour Market. The September 2013 edition, for example, revealed that in the first four months of 2013, compared to 2012 year end, demand for temporary agency workers increased, whilst recruitment in the healthcare sector also increased by 1% between 2011 and 2012. As aforementioned, a myriad of initiatives have been established in a bid to reach the Europe 2020 target. But are these initiatives adequate? “I think they are entirely inadequate. The international youth organisation said you would need €21bn to have a significant impact. It’s a sticking plaster on a gaping wound of youth unemployment”, Paul said, adding that these initiatives are “normalising the ideas of people working for free”. Furthermore, Emer alluded to the fact that when it comes to applying for these initiatives “many people say that they don’t understand the application forms”. With this in mind she said there exists “a greater need for dissemination” of information about these initiatives. Solutions are being presented by the EU to rectify unemployment, to which there are differing opinions. But are they merely sticking a plaster on the gaping world of youth unemployment? Only time will tell. g
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Job vacancy. No crisis in Europe Many jobs in Europe are not taken. Lack of information and local legislations as the main obstacles. The EU needs to tackle the issue effectively.
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Text and Picture by Elena Roda, Italy
One million four hundred thousand. This is the number of job vacancies in the European Union. While politicians and the public opinion are busy discussing problems related to unemployment, at the Festival of foreign affairs magazine “Internazionale” 2013, European commissioner in Italy, Lucio Battistotti, raised the issue. There are too many job offers in the EU that no one is taking. It would seem unreal in a time of crisis but it’s happening; and the reasons behind the phenomenon can be found in the machine Europe. In 1994, when the European Commission first launched EURES, the jobmatching service for European citizens, people were unaware of the potential of the internet and the crisis wasn’t an issue. Now, almost 20 years later, the EURES website shows: 0 job vacancies, 1.208.033 CVs uploaded and 32.044 employers registered. A question suddenly pops up: where did the 1.400.000 vacancies eventually end up? “The function of EURES obviously can be improved and we intend to do it by the end of the year,” said Laurence Weerts, a member of the Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Commission. Some projects to support EURES are almost ready to be launched: ESCO (European Skills, Competences and Occupations taxonomy), to provide information on job legislation in the member states, and “Your first EURES job,” to help young people enter the labour market. Yet, it seems that so far the European Union hasn’t reacted proactively to the urgency of a vigorous strategy to face its job anomalies. The drop of employment
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rates since 2011, as recorded by the Social Europe Quarterly Review, published on October 2, clash with the availability of thousands of jobs. The causes behind that have to be searched both at a national and European level. According to Weerts, member states share the same responsibility with the European Union: “In our work we need the cooperation of public employment services in our member states. We rely on them, if they share information or not.” A lack of communication that seems to be the consequence of a bigger problem: the difficulty in advertising and promoting European programs. But job vacancies need publicity if the aim is to fill them with the huge consequence of lowering the unemployment rate in the Union. “Now we are not really aware of job vacancies at a local level, that is, what we want to encourage more in the future,” Mrs. Weerts said. However, promoting job vacancies does not always mean being able to fill the right vacancy with the right person. According to the Social Europe Quarterly Review the skill mismatch has been increasing over the last period. This has direct consequences on the labour market where high-educated people take jobs below their qualification with serious effects on the society, waste of human capital and labour market frictions. Nevertheless this seems to be the right moment to take action. “It is the first time in history that we know the changes that are coming. There are three sectors where we can clearly see there is a huge mismatch and we are sure there will be more in the future if we don’t act. These include the green economy, healthcare and ICT,” Mrs. Weerts said.
Focusing on specific sectors seems one effective way the European Union can follow to prevent the future mismatch whereas others, according to Mrs. Weerts, wouldn’t have the same effects. “We complain a lot about the lack of mobility but mobility is not perfect even in the US where there are no language barriers. To address the situation of course mobility is one element but it’s a panacea, it’s not really solving the problem,” Mrs. Weerts said. Indeed, according to Mrs. Weerts, mismatch is the direct consequence of phenomenon such as a high level of vacancies and high unemployment rate, happening at the same time. “The causes of these problems are very diverse: people who are not willing to move, people who don’t have the right skills, information that is not well transmitted or not really understood,” Mrs. Weerts said. European tools such as EURES and the new ones soon available for European citizens searching for a job might help the labour market face its deficiencies. Nonetheless it’s rather clear that communication and information sharing between member states and the European Union needs to be improved, especially in terms of job legislation and professional validation among European countries. “EURES doesn’t address these issues but, yes, we do have a huge problem here,” Mrs. Weerts said. To make it possible for a European professional to have same labour rights in any European country, the way is still long and intricate. Job vacancy can surely be one consequence of this rather local perspective on the job market. Therefore the European Union needs to rethink its strategy and address central issues urgently. To increase the market and make people’s mobility finally working. g
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Generation Entrepreneur? Will the European Commission’s Entrepreneur 2020 Action Plan encourage young people to invest in themselves? Text and Picture by Aileen Dongan, Ireland
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“We live in an environment where economic failure is publicly vilified and individuals are often relied on to support larger extended families.” The migration of young people through Europe and the rest of the world since the European economic crisis can be measured by the buzzterm of this recession: Generation Emigration. While some young people opt to leave for financial gain, some are forced to leave to find work to survive. But what about the young people who set up shop at home? Earlier this year the European Commission (EC), the executive body of the European Union responsible for legislation, announced their Entrepreneur 2020 Action Plan. Three main things are at the top of the agenda for the Enterprise and Industry division of the EC. The directorate responsible for jobs, growth and competitiveness in Europe aims to: put more emphasis on entrepreneur education in schools and universities; support and remove structural barriers for entrepreneurs; and nurture ‘the new generation of entrepreneurs’ – young people. Is the EU accessible for young people? How effective are these measures in an age of youth emigration? Over 200,000 people have emigrated from Ireland since 2008, according to the Irish daily newspaper of record the Irish Times, based on figures by Ireland’s Central Statistic Office. Up to 89,000 people left Ireland between April 2012 and April 2013. The age group of emigrants, in the majority, is the 15-24 and 25-44 age brackets. The possibilities for entrepreneurs in Ireland are steadily growing; Dublin is becoming a hub for tech start-ups with Google, Facebook, Twitter and more international headquarters moving into the city. When you consider how many incubator programs and communities there are for budding entrepreneurs (Dogpatch, Wayra, Pitchify and Startup Grind) Ireland should be primed for tech entrepreneurial success. One of the support mechanisms available to Irish citizens is the EU. Do young people look to Europe for help in their entrepreneurial pursuits? And what do they make of the opportunities the EC is offering?
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“To be honest, I briefly looked into EU support a few times although I’ve never heard of the 2020 plan,” says Dáithí de Buitléir, co-founder of Raising And Giving Ireland (RAG Ireland), a new youth not-for-profit organisation in Ireland. “I would have two main issues with potential support: information isn’t easily available and can be very heavy and hard to digest,” continues de Buitléir. “Application processes are often quite intensive and there can be quite a lot of red tape. I simply don’t have the time to fill out form upon form in the hope of a holy grail.” Currently within the Eurozone, Ireland secured a €85billion euro bailout package from the European Union and International Monetary Fund (EU-IMF) in 2010 and is currently paying back its debt through austerity measures. The national financial breakdown has directly contributed to the many young people jobless and emigrating. The possibility to start-up is difficult according to de Buitléir: “RAG Ireland is disqualified from a lot of potential start-up support because of our not-for-profit ethos. This is shortsighted especially considering the growing number of social enterprises across the continent who create jobs and economic value.” Aversion to Risk In September 2013 the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) reported that just over 17.3% of young Europeans believe they have the skills and knowledge to start a business. Europe scores low compared to other regions: for the Middle East & North Africa, Latin America & the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa the figures for youth entrepreneurship skills and knowledge range from 30.0%, 40.0% and 60.0%, respectively. But this figure doesn’t alarm young, serial entrepreneur and CEO of Sandbox AG John Egan: “17.3% is significantly higher than the number actually capable of
successfully starting a business.” Egan explains that first-time entrepreneur success stories are a rarity, “When we consider youth entrepreneurship our success metrics shouldn’t be based around how many succeed in their first venture, but rather how many succeed in subsequent ventures.” In Ireland, according to the EU Barometer, the possibility of going bankrupt and the risk of losing one’s property or home is ranked high on the list of concerns the Irish have of entrepreneurship. “By acknowledging that young companies will fail and that this is a necessary part of the learning process we can encourage entrepreneurship without institutionalised aversion to risk,” adds Egan on the state of youth entrepreneurship in Ireland. “We live in an environment where economic failure is publicly vilified and individuals are often relied on to support larger extended families.” A culture of nurture Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs, an exchange programme where young people get the chance to work in a business environment to learn practical skills, is just one way the EC is promoting youth entrepreneurship. So is the EC’s emphasis on European SME Week 25-30 November 2013, a week devoted to raising awareness of youth opportunities at national and European level. The Commission has made big leaps to make entrepreneurship a desirable, realistic and financially viable opportunity for young people. However, among the young people interviewed for this piece most did not know the EU offered any kind of help for them – either directly or indirectly. Why this disconnect between policy and supports to those they are targeted at? The Enterprise and Industry Press Office and Policy Office were unavailable for interview at the time of publication. g
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“To make it accessible for young people. The EU is very transparent but is not easy digestible.”
WHAT'S THE MAIN CHALLENGE IN REPORTING THE EU?
“Many EU related matters are largely unreported in the media in member states – our main challenge is to get the national media interested in EU affairs.”
To immerse oneself into a very technical process (I had to deal with a 200 page directive) and try to explain it in a simple and short way.”
“Citizens in member states are not really into EU matters. Europe seems to be too far from national problems. We, as journalists, have to help Europe enter
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EUROPEAN MAP
PEKKA LEIVISKA FINLAND
“The amount of information is so vast and the issues are so complex that most journalists don’t have the time or the required skills to report about issues.”
MERLE MUST ESTONIA
“As EU issues are complicated, readers need explanations and background with given word and time limit, it is a challenge to simplify to needed level, but still report thoughtfully.”
MATEUSZ JAZDZEWSKI POLAND
“I believe the biggest challenge in reporting EU is to get rid of your national perspective in order to understand foreign interests and points of view.”
MIHAEL TOPOLOVEC SLOVENIA
“National differences among Member States and complexity of the EU politics are big challenge in making a comprehensive media report about EU without falling into the traps of trivialization of the issue.”
OLIMPIA PARJE
ROMANIA
“Remembering who your public is - such diversity of backgrounds and opinions in the European sphere.”
MARIA-CHRISTINA DOULAMI GREECE
“Overcoming the bureaucracy and being able to interpret the often vague Euro-speak into something more accessible to readers and much more comprehensible to all with an actual meaning.”
EUROPEAN MAP
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Higher Education Abroad = Brain Drain? Text and pictures by Merle Must, Estonia
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Traian Ungureanu “Going back home? Are you kidding?” says Radoslav Zhelev, Bulgarian Mastersstudent at Vrije University Brussels (VUB). He is just one of the many youngsters who left to study in a higher education institution far away from their homes in eastern or southeast Europe, hoping to stay in the west after graduating. The governments and universities of western European countries like Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom or Sweden, hope to solve the problem of an ageing society by attracting more international students and offering them benefits for staying. Many of the youngsters come from eastern and southeast countries, following the way of young educated people who have left since the collapse of Soviet Union, causing the “alarming” so-called ‘brain drain’. In the globalising world, universities are expanding their outreach and finding new students inside and outside of Europe. For instance, Groningen University (RUG) in the Netherlands, which has more than 4,000 international students, wants to go up to 5,000 next year. Judith Barthel from the International Marketing and Communication department said that among other markets, they also keep an eye on Eastern Europe, by visiting fairs in Romania, Bulgaria, and Russia. “We just went to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sofia and Bucharest,” she adds. Prospective students can choose from approximately 100 English-taught programmes, and RUG also coaches students on finding a job in the Netherlands after graduation. To better integrate immigrants into the society, Bachelor and Master students can have free Dutch courses. Not enough responsibility According to the study: ‘Mobile Talent? The Staying Intentions of International Students in Five EU countries’ almost two out of three international students expressed the intention to stay after graduation for a shorter or longer period to work. Their wishes may come true, as governments are working towards it. Visas or full
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Julija Sakovica cost fees are offered to graduates outside of the EU by the governments of the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden, which also have post-study job-search schemes for well-educated people. Radoslav Zhelev, who studies in an English-taught program of New Media and Society in Europe at VUB, hopes to become a great international communication specialist to be able to choose any country to work in. Still he leaves out the opportunity to return to Bulgaria, as he thinks that salary isn’t sufficient – like unpaid or €140-salary internships have proven – nor are young people trusted or given enough responsibility. Julija Sakovica, Management Science Masters-student in VUB arrived there at first as an Erasmus exchange student from Riga Technical University. As she liked the country and her studies that delved into problems, demanded a lot of studying and “teach you to think,” she returned for an internship and to do the Masters program. Although a foreign degree gives greater credit to her CV at home in Latvia, Julia would only return if she were to open her own business or if things really started to change. “Structures are old and the government doesn’t really give attention to the people leaving.” Otherwise, working in the center of European relations and businesses in Brussels, seems to be a good solution for Julija, who would like to go into managing international relations for a company. Julija thinks that she will have a lot of work opportunities in the future, when she completes her French studies, which is what Radoslav also wants to do. “Life is just easier and I have a choice with my education,” Julija says. “Living standards are different here because of the higher salaries. I don’t have to choose whether to eat bread or cheese, I can have both.” The mentality is also different, Julija
Radoslav Zhelev says, as she finds Brussels to be welcoming towards foreigners, who want to immigrate in order to work or study, not to live on social support. Greater attention of policy makers According to researches, brain drain causes uneven distribution of knowledge and capital in Europe and slows down the development of newer EU member-countries. After Latvia joined European Union in 2004, more than 100,000 citizens, also among them young qualified people, left the country. Radoslav adds that with Bulgaria, the case isn’t even that of brain drain, but “brain pull.” “The West doesn’t force or drag us, but rather home countries do everything to make us leave,” he adds. “The situation is terrible,” claims Traian Ungureanu, Romanian MEP, as young people have moved away at first to earn better salary, but also because of the old standards and lack of support from the older generation. Currently there are between 22,000 and 50,000 Romanian students abroad, but Ungureanu isn’t surprised of this, as he claims that the country’s educational system is weak: there are more than 100 universities which give worthless degrees that don’t secure graduates with work and undermine the quality of higher education in Romania. As the economic situation can’t be changed easily to increase the salaries, youngsters should still be given better opportunities when they return home, says Ungureanu. He argues that companies should be encouraged to give meritbased scholarships in important areas, like in medicine and engineering. But the true solution would be restructuring the education system, as this also leads the way for the whole country. “But this seems impossible for now,” says Ungureanu. Students on the other hand demand greater attention to the brain drain problem from policy makers. “This should be one of the main issues for the government,” adds Radoslav. g
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European professional card a revolution for EU job seekers Text by Tressia Boukhors, France
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Image: otoviva / SXC Till now, only 7 out of 800 professions in the European Union benefit from an automatic European recognition of their qualifications. If you are part of the 793 others and plan to work abroad in the EU, by choice or by necessity, you have to face a long administrative process to get recognition of your professional qualifications. This will change with the text voted by the European Parliament. Towards an automatic recognition in the EU To promote a better mobility of professionals, the European Parliament approved, on October 9th, the introduction of a European professional card recognising qualifications of professionals at the European scale. The amended text, based on a 2005 directive, aims to enhance cooperation between the home member state and the host member state for short periods of work abroad as well as for a permanent transfer of the professional activity. “It is better than a modernization, it is a revolution” said MEP Bernadette Vergnaud, rapporteur of the amended directive. The recognition of professional qualification embodies the next step to a common framework, after the L.M.D harmonization of university training. “We managed to push Member States to a common framework of university training. This is now a bridge to automatic recognition of professions,” assures Vergnaud. The virtual professional qualifications card will facilitate free movement of professionals within the EU and especially the mobility of qualified job seekers. Once they request for the card, both the home Member State and host Member States will be in charge of the whole process to deliver the card. It introduces a mutual trust of Member States, who need to cooperate and “it will not have any cost for professionals,” comments Vergnaud.
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However, notaries will be excluded from the scope of the text because of the very specific regimes applicable in each member state. Transparency: a public database A public database will be created and every professional applying for a European professional card will have to submit all the necessary documentation and the request to a public interface. This database will be available for employers, public authorities, consumers, patients and every citizen to check the validity of the card and look for information. For example, a German doctor who is willing to work in the United Kingdom, will have to upload proof of his German qualifications and ability to practice medicine on a public database prior to the examination of his request by the German competent authority. Securisation: an alert system The draft law voted by the European Parliament also focuses on the securisation of the common framework. It introduces a European alert system on malpractices or disciplinary actions committed, which is especially important for health professionals. The home member state can therefore check if the professional is not forbidden to practice, before validating the request and submitting it to the host member state. Patrick Fortuit, Vice President of the French Pharmacist Order and member of the expert group of the European Commission, is satisfied with the adoption of the European Professional Card: “We have been working on this project since 2007 with the European Commissioner Michel Barnier. The European professional card will definitely facilitate mobility of health professionals but, above all, ensure security of patients”. Indeed, a health professional, who has been forbidden to practice by his Na-
tional profession’s order, won’t be able to practice in any other country within the EU. Recognition of traineeships Traineeships, including those of which are unpaid, will also benefit from a professional recognition as long as they are under a contract of employment and part of a university curriculum. British MEP Catherine Stihler particularly supported this extension of the directive. Former trainees will therefore see their experience taken into account by their home Member State when they request access to a regulated profession. From an electronic certificate to a physical card? In the short term, the European directive will take the form of an electronic certificate. “With this electronic certificate, we will be able to check the database in an easy and fast way” explains Patrick Fortuit. In the future, a physical card may be created, following on some pilot projects such as the French Pharmacist Order: “we already introduced the principle of a European card with one side dedicated to National legal obligations and the other side with contacts of the competent authority from the other EU Member State,” clarifies the Vice President of the Order. Nurses are also expected to be one of the first professions to implement the European professional card. Thierry Lothaire, from the National Federation of Nurses in Belgium (FNIB) stated in a press release: “Some people will not understand immediately the importance of this vote for nursing care in Belgium and in Europe. However, believe me, it won’t take long to see its effects […]”. Indeed, Member States will have 2 years to transpose the text into their National law. Good news for a more inclusive job market! g
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Jobless, Hopeless and Divided Is European Labour Mobility dividing the EU? Text and Picture by Maria-Christina Doulami, Greece
It’s a hard time to be young. It’s even worse if you come from the periphery of Europe. Unemployment has reached unprecedented levels, and youngsters are forced to migrate northbound for a better future. But how is this ‘great escape’ affecting the unity of the EU project? On 9 May 1950, Robert Schuman said that Europe cannot be built in a day, but rather through events that require solidarity. Today’s European Union (EU) seems too distant from this vision. “We are doing everything in the wrong way,” says Portuguese MEP Inês Cristina Zuber (GUE/NGL), Vice President of the European Parliament’s (EP) Employment and Social Affairs Committee. She explained that the biggest problem
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qualified youth face today is that they are in jobs without quality contracts, no job security and no social benefits. They may even live precariously like this for years. In fact, youth unemployment has reached unprecedented levels, averaging 23% in the EU and reaching 63% in Greece, and with increasing long-term unemployment, the youth of today risk becoming the unemployable adults of tomorrow. “We have to change these kind of labour relations,” stated Zuber, “we must create safer labour relations with guarantees and rights in order to keep people in their country. It is impossible to develop a country without these qualified people,” she said. Her co-vice president for the EP Employment Committee, German MEP Thomas Mann (EPP), said that the EU’s Youth Employment Initiative is very important in this sense, and particularly
the Youth Guarantee Scheme through which member states committed to ensure that within four months of becoming unemployed or leaving formal education all young people up to 25 years receive a high-quality offer for a job, an apprenticeship or traineeship. But can this really work? EURES Adviser in Cyprus Antonis Kafouros appeared pessimistic. He said that even this is targeted to specific groups, as it cannot help everyone. “Such schemes often simply serve to keep unemployment figures at a steady level,” he explained. “There is no real investment in infrastructure or job creation. Demand levels do not increase. The programme is simply adding more qualified people into the supply end. If there are no jobs in which to use the skills/experience gained then it is futile”. The EU has earmarked €6 billion for 2014-2016 for this scheme. But
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even though that sounds impressive, Joachim Weidemann, head of “Insight EU” at Deutsche Presse Agentur (dpa), calculated that this amounts to a mere €500 per unemployed person per year. “In order to have the minimum effect this programme would require €21 billion,” he noted. Giving youngsters a chance For Mann, however, this initiative is “a small drop on a hot stone”. It is a first step to give young people a chance to become integrated into the labour force, to gain experience and have the opportunity to seek a job. Such programmes are supported by the European Social Fund (ESF) which for the 2007-2013 period amounts to some €75 billion, more than €10 billion per year. Mann believes this would help create the conditions for young people to stay in their countries. “The decision is taken at the EU level but the realization is in the hands of member states,” he said. He stressed that the ways for southern European countries to combat increased unemployment is by changing the conditions in these countries. “They should realize reforms and this takes hard work. Some are too lazy for these reforms.” But he insisted that
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the best way forward is to learn from each other: “we must ask why some countries are so successful while others are waiting for money from outside.” Qualified individuals from the periphery of Europe face more than twice as high unemployment rates than in the north and core (17.1% compared to 7.1%). Many of these seek a better future abroad. But according to a 2011 Flash Eurobarometer, 44% of EU respondents do not want to leave their country. “They are forced to go,” says Zuber, pointing out that this is not true ‘mobility’ but immigration.
EU programmes will help youth find jobs and traineeships, but it is not solving the problem. “The EU is marketing its idea of Social Europe to legitimse itself before public opinion,” continued Zuber. But how the EU is actually affecting the lives of its
citizens is different. “We are now living worse than our parents,” she said, reverberating EP President Martin Schulz’s statement of a lost generation. “The EU’s programmes will help the youth find jobs and traineeships, but it is not solving the problem.” She argued that a positive discrimination is required to help countries in trouble recover and develop top-quality infrastructure. “More solidarity” is needed she said. Zuber believes that the EU must invest in these countries, otherwise the gap in development will become even greater. “There will be the countries with the know-how and the technology and then the periphery (the countries now under a Memorandum of Understanding) with the cheap labour force to work in their industries. We will create a Europe even more divergent.” The EU’s motto is in fact united in diversity. With all the challenges and opportunities this entails. But by failing to contain this ‘brain drain’ from the periphery to the core, the situation in immigrants’ home countries deteriorates further, accentuating the division of the EU into a prosperous north and a despaired south. g
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Any job won’t do Inna Jaakkola is one of the people who are working in a job that they’re overqualified for. Societies are wasting her and thousands of others’ talents. Text and Pictures by Pekka Leiviskä, Finland
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Europe is wasting brains. Big time. “Everybody has heard of a taxi driver who used to be a doctor, an architect, a lawyer in his/her home country,” tells Member of the European Parliament and a Vice President of Committee Employment and Social Affairs Nadja Hirsch in an email interview. Statistics show that immigrants are most affected by this phenomenon. One of the most affected groups is so-called third-country nationals or TCNs. From 2008-2012, 30-40% of TCNs worked in a medium or low-skilled profession even though they had a high level of education. The situation is even worse for the original 12 European Union (EU) country nationals who live in another EU country. Overqualification among them has been 50-60% in 2008-2012. The situation is frustrating for the individuals, but everybody should be concerned about this. The reason is simple: we need more immigrants. Ian Goldring, the director of Projectworks, an association dedicated to building the capacity of people and organisations, explains the basic reason why we need immigrants. “Europe is an aging society.” That means that in the future less and less people will be left to work and provide the money to societies to keep running all their services and infrastructure. At the same time the world is changing and traditional industry jobs are vanishing. We should be building what Goldring calls a “knowledge-based society.” That means inventing new kind of services and business models. Europe can’t afford to lose brains. Goldring also points out that in many countries immigrants are the fastest growing population. “And they’re un-
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derperforming. What kind of competitive model is that?” Chemistry changed to babysitting Inna Jaakkola came to Finland in 1995 when she got married to a Finnish man. In her home country of Russia she was teaching chemistry and even offered a position as Vice President of the school. In Finland the reality was different. She could not find a teaching job. First, there were a couple of practical reasons: she didn’t speak Finnish and in Finland chemistry teachers traditionally have to be able to teach physics and mathematics too. At first she wasn’t even that worried and stayed home taking care of her kids. But when the kids grew up a bit, she started to get more active in finding jobs. She tried to apply for a position as an instructor in an after school program. Reception was blunt. The woman interviewing Jaakkola said to her that she was not interested what she had studied “over there in Russia.” The woman said that Jaakkola had to have a specific instructor education if she wanted the job. Even though Jaakkola had a much higher education already. Goldring tells even more extreme cases, like a doctor mopping floors or a woman in Sweden who was an environmental engineer but still didn’t get a job. “She was qualified in growth sector.” For Goldring this really touches the core. He sees overqualification as a problem as well as a symptom of the current economic crisis. Goldring says that societies should have a vision or even a plan on how to grow the economy and create jobs. In his opinion now too much of Europe is just drifting and hoping for a solution. This all has to be changed and local communities have to play the key role. They know the local advantages and re-
sources – and how to make most of them. What the EU can do? Even though a lot of solutions have everything to do with local policies and local development, the EU can also improve the situation. MEP Nadja Hirsh has suggested that awareness should start already in the country of origin. She has promoted so-called ‘pre-departure desks’ that could help potential migrants to deal with administrative processes already at home. “They should be combined with national labour market assessments so that demand can more easily match the supply.” both she and Goldring thinks that Europe should be more open and it should be easier for companies to hire new workers. Goldring mentions Silicon Valley at the United States as an example. “There are people all over the world. They don’t care where people are from. We need more of that.” Hirsch is also promoting the speeding up of foreign diplomas recognition so that problems like Jaakkola’s can be avoided. “Such recognition has to be swift, transparent and inexpensive. We cannot afford to keep skilled workers in an administrative deadlock.” When it comes to Jaakkola, she says she’s happy now. She was determined to get the job she was first denied. She applied for an instructor course and got selected among 200 applicants. After completing the course, she applied for the job and got it. She found her thing. In a sense this is a happy ending, but not without controversy. Jaakkola gives good advice for other job applicants: be active, study something else and find out what kind of work is out there. Still we should be careful about settling for less. After all, if we settle for less, we might waste our own talents as well as harm the society. g
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Travel broadens the mind – but can it get you a job? Text by Mateusz Jazdzewski, Poland
In the Elizabethan era theatrical troupes were travelling from castle-tocastle and town-to-town to seek opportunities to perform. Six centuries after Shakespearean times, the mobility of artists is still a vital part of their lives. Means and scopes of movement might have changed but the motivations for travel stay the same: curiosity, hunger of adventure and... well yes, money. It is no mystery that in the current economic climate many sectors experience job reductions and financial cuts. Culture is no exception to that rule and actually it is the first area where politicians look for savings. In such adverse conditions it is often hard for the artists and people involved in cultural industry to make their living out of creative work. In many cases they tend to sponsor their creation through taking up ‘survival jobs’. But this does not have to be the only option. Nowadays, there are plenty of possibilities to follow the example of Elizabethan troupes and combine work with travelling and getting to know other people and places.
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But where to look for such opportunities? Here the organisation On the Move (OTM) may be of help. On the Move is a Brussels based association whose main mission is based on the fact that the lack of information about cultural mobility opportunities in the arts and cultural sector is an equally serious problem as insufficient funding of cross-border cultural initiatives. Back in 2002 it was first developed by International European Theatre Meeting (IETM) as a website with free and updated news on cultural mobility opportunities in Europe for the performing arts sector. Throughout the years it grew and is now a network of 37 member organisations and four individual members from EU as well as Asia, USA and the Middle East. Today OTM signposts the travelling opportunities in Europe and worldwide in all the creative professions. “We position cultural mobility in a very holistic perspective encompassing different impacts that it may have on the mobile artists and professionals, sending and host or-
ganisations, the public and the local communities,” says Marie Le Sourd, the OTM Secretary General. Since 2011, along with providing information, OTM started to advocate more extensively for better conditions for mobile artists and cultural professionals in particular through the online Charter for a Sustainable and Responsible Cultural Mobility. The association co-organises workshops and meetings on topics such as new technologies and information dissemination, visas and systems of social security and taxation in the EU. The cultural mobility network also coproduces online guides and toolkits for fund seekers, mobile young artists or cultural journalists. One of the main funders of On the Move is the European Commission (for the period 2011-2013). Cultural mobility is considered as one of the priorities in many strategic plans implemented by EC, including Culture Programme 2007-2013, European Agenda for Culture 2011-14 and prospective programme Creative Europe 2014-2020. Why is it so impor-
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Image: svilen001 / SXC
tant for EU policy makers? The 2008 report Mobility Matters identifies multiple benefits of cross-border travel of artists starting from aspiration for international visibility through promoting intercultural understanding and ending with reducing imbalances in Europe. “There is an added value to the cultural mobility within EU because for European countries it is important to get to know each other in order to understand each other better,” says Barbara Gessler, the Head of Unit of Culture in Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency. However, there are also some purely economic reasons motivating the institutional support for the flow of cultural workers. The movement of creative personnel generates the production and exchange of goods and services. In that sense a travelling artist is no different from a lawyer, doctor or an entrepreneur looking for jobs abroad. “On the European level we are striving for professionalisation of the artists to allow them to use the opportunities that the market actually offers. Encouraging mobility is part of this strategy,” Gessler explains.
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One of the artists who explored these opportunities extensively is a Polish playwright Anna Wakulik. In 2011 she took part in the International Residency programme in the Royal Court in London. There, she got the chance to meet other international playwrights and work with British actors and directors. As a result of the workshops the play A Time to Reap was staged in the Royal Court in February 2013. “A residence in London helped me to look at my writing differently and reinforced my belief in my own skills,” Wakulik recalls. Since her return to Poland her name has definitely been more recognised in theatre than before her stay in the UK. Moreover, she now holds the position of Literary Manager in Ludwik Solski Theatre in Tarnów. “Thanks to participation in international workshops and residencies I met many people I still co-operate with artistically. For example in Tarnów we staged the play Constallations written by Nick Payne who I met at the playwriting workshops in Barcelona,” says Wakulik.
Are there more examples out there of people who successfully developed their career through international experience? Probably, but there are hardly any studies measuring the impact of cultural mobility. One of the few available is a work in progress report published by Roberto Cimetta Fund. It aims to access the impact of the grant awarded by RCF on the participants of the programme. It states that 57.5% of the respondents realised that their travel had had a positive impact on their work either during or right after their travel and 49% of the respondents can live off their creative work. Although taking part in cultural mobility does not guarantee social stability or full-time employment it can definitely help to open career prospects. In the words of Anna Wakulik: “It is very important for the artist to travel. It allows you to perceive the reality more intensively and spot the things that you were deaf and blind to before you left your country”. g
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A gay-friendly employer? Main Image: Karen Arnold / Public Domain Pictures | Jean Lambert photo: Tanoshimi / Wikipedia
The EU’s ‘Equality Employment Directive’ should protect everybody. Still discrimination happens. Text and Portrait of Mojca Kekuš by Mihael Topolovec, Slovenia
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Mojca Kleva Kekuš In the year 2000, the ‘Equality Employment Directive’ (Directive 2000/78) was adopted by the European Union. Besides disability, age, religion or belief, the Directive also sets a legal framework aiming at combating discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation in the field of employment across Member States. Problems with implementation According to data gathered, among more than 93.000 LGBT people living in the EU, by the Fundamental Rights Agency, in 2012 one in five (20%) of those respondents who were employed or looking for a job in the 12 months proceeding the survey felt discriminated against in their workplace because of their sexual orientation. Referring to this survey explains Jean Lambert, Group of the Greens/European Alliance MEP from United Kingdom: “It is very clear that there are still some big problems in terms of the implementation of this Directive regarding the protection of LGBT people in the field of employment. For a number of Member States this is an area on which they would prefer not to think about. Some of them feel genuinely uncomfortable about collecting data on this issue because they think sexuality is only a personal matter. ‘Why are you asking us about people’s sexuality?,’ they wonder”. “I personally know two recent cases of discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation in the workplace – one from Slovenia and one from Belgium. The hardest thing is to prove that discrimination had actually occurred,” shares Mojca Kleva Kekuš, Slovenian MEP, representative of Group of Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. She continues: “That’s the precise reason why the European legislation regarding anti-discriminative prevention in employment is needed. Otherwise every
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Member State would be free to interpret the meaning of discrimination in their own terms”. “It should be implemented by everyone of us” A Slovenian gay man who lives and works in Brussels explains his personal insight on the issue: “It is important for me to know that my employer does not have a negative opinion on LGBTIQ issues and that he/she clearly contributes to a tolerant working environment. I would like to be able to express my sexual orientation freely without fearing negative reactions from my colleagues”. When asked if he has heard about the ‘Equality Employment Directive’ and if he thinks that this Directive has a practical impact on his professional life, he answers: “I have heard about the Directive but never paid much attention to its content. I know that non-discrimination is enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty and is part of the basic human rights. I have never thought it would be necessary to have a separate EU legislative act covering this aspect when it should be part of our everyday life and implemented by everyone of us”. Not feeling welcome and comfortable: “Why should I stay?” “My decision to move to Brussels had also partly to do with the fact that my home country is less liberal with regards to sexual preferences,” a Slovenian interviewee admits. “Those who argue that promotion of equality is somehow a burden to business, that it involves extra costs and that we shouldn’t be burdening business are making a very big mistake. If you are not promoting equality, if you’re not promoting good practices in your business, you are losing a lot of talents and you are encouraging people to look elsewhere for a job. If you don’t feel welcome in your country and if you don’t feel comfortable at your workplace, why should you stay?,” Lambert observes.
Jean Lambert Ignoring the range of discrimination In late September this year, the draft report regarding the implementation of the Directive was presented for the first time in the European Parliament. The report was rejected by the European Parliament Committee on Employment and Social Affairs. “The rejection of a report is a highly unlikely event”, says Kleva Kekuš. “One of the implications of this report was simply that it is impossible to prove any kind of discrimination in the field of employment in EU. This is something that many parties just could not agree with”, she continues. “A number of us felt that the draft report concentrated very heavily on a disability dimension, which is fair because this is a really big issue in terms of implementation, but it hadn’t balanced this with other areas of discrimination, not least with discrimination of LGBT people,” stresses Lambert. Consequences of the rejection Slovenian MEP, Kleva Kekuš, is pessimistic about the consequences of the rejection of the Directive implementation report: “At least for another two years we won’t be able to talk about this issue. Until then the Directive that was formulated thirteen years ago is staying in force. This old Directive is not adapted to the world we are living in today”. For British MEP, Lambert, the rejection is a signal that the European Parliament doesn’t have an opinion on the implementation of the Directive: “If the Parliament doesn’t have a view on the implementation of this Directive, how can we continue with the extension of the Directive from the field of the employment to the field of goods and services? Maybe our next chance will be when the Commission will review the Directive implementation. But this means that next time around the European Parliament also needs to be willing to take a more balanced approach to the problem of discrimination in employment”. g
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Restrictions that Text by Olimpia Parje, Romania
2014 marks the end of the seven year transitional period for Romania and Bulgaria, who joined the EU on the 1st of January 2007. During this transitional period EU states were allowed to impose restrictions on workers coming from the aforementioned countries. These restrictions come in different forms: either only for specific job sectors or in the largest case implementing the necessity of a work permits. The UK and Belgium are part of the latter group and have taken advantage of these transitional rules to protect their labour markets from an influx of workers. In 2014 the restrictions will be lifted and workers from Romania and Bulgaria will be free to work wherever they please. The countries that have chosen to impose the restrictions commonly use
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the economic argument; to protect their workers from Eastern Europeans who are supposedly willing to work for less money. Populist politicians use the already clichéd argument that ‘immigrants are coming to take our jobs.’ This is undoubtedly very popular in times of crisis and high unemployment. Largely unreported however, are the many benefits that accompany immigrants, namely taxes, capital and a younger population. Also commonly unstated is the high number of very high-skilled workers that come to these countries. Many of whom are in search of a better education or a better environment to develop their skills and contribute to the growth of the countries themselves. The so-called ‘transitional rules’ have back-fired on the host countries, by depriving them of highly skilled workers, creating opportunities for abuses, discrimination and a stronger black market for workers from Eastern European countries, such as Romania and Bulgaria.
Romanian MEP, Traian Ungureanu argues that the rules did not help anyone. On the contrary, they have had the opposite effect. Instead of helping the host countries’ economy, it has been detrimental to it. The panic created in the media, especially in the UK regarding lifting the restrictions in 2014 greatly exaggerates the number of Romanian and Bulgarian workers that would flock to the British island this January. “Those who wanted to leave have already left,” says Ungureanu, referring to the fact that over 3 million Romanians are estimated to be working abroad already. “There’s nobody left to go,” Ungureanu added. With Romanian unemployment rates at a comfortable 7.5%, compared to the EU average of 10.9%, one wonders why countries such as the UK are concerned about an influx of workers. However, the fact remains, salaries in countries, like Romania and Bulgaria, remain low, where a minimum wage of 170 EUR, pales in comparison to 1189 EUR in the UK.
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Image: hworks / SXC
help nobody The transitional rules have failed to improve the situation either way. The great loss to countries imposing the restrictions has been that highly qualified people have chosen to look for jobs in countries that offer fewer restrictions and less bureaucracy. Cristina D. for example, comes from Romania and has recently moved to Germany after having worked in Brussels for over a year for EU institutions. “It’s easy to deal with the working permits when you work for an official institution, but regular companies don’t want to bother with the legal paperwork. In Belgium you can only get a legal permit if the employer applies for it on your behalf. I have received emails that employers were very interested in my application, and later asked if I had a permit – I told them no, but that they could make one for me. I didn’t hear from them again. I stopped applying for jobs in Brussels, convinced that employers were never going to make the effort of helping me acquire a working permit. So I started looking for one in Germany, where if
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you want to work in the field in which you studied, you don’t need a permit. However, even so, they sent me a letter asking me to send them proof of my permit. The HR department didn’t even bother to check the regulations. I sent them the paragraph wherein it is stated in the rules and they calmed down. The employer simply doesn’t care for the hassle”. Cristina has a Bachelors Degree in International Economics and Journalism. Additionally, she has a Masters Degree in Communication from Jacobs University in Bremen. “I went to a couple of job fairs and they told me, informally of course, that they don’t hire people who require a working permit,” says Georgiana P., who currently works for the Commission in Brussels. “I got to the final stage of an interview and was told clearly the firm didn’t have it in the budget to do the legal paperwork for my permit, even if I was perfectly qualified,” she adds. Not all employers are scared by bureau-
cracy, some are simply uninformed. Laura T. now works for a consultancy company in Brussels but her first days were not the easiest. “I had problems in the beginning because my firm didn’t know the procedures. The housing and living costs made it a very difficult time.” The bureaucratic hassle manages to not only discourage companies but also workers. “The whole working permit procedure was the reason I didn’t go to London for example” Laura adds. These are the losses that you cannot see in statistics and point to the very contradictory character of the ‘transitional rules’ that manage to cause more damage than good. In July this year, Croatia, the newest EU member state, has not been spared the transitional regulations. Its’ workers will have to jump through the same bureaucratic hoops to be able to work in some EU countries. Perhaps it’s time for a wake-up call, to look beyond the easy shift of blame. Perhaps it’s time to welcome workers into a dynamic and strong internal European market. g
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ELISA JESIONOWSKA POLAND
Loser Inexperienced Creative
LORA
GERMANY Limited opportunities Qualification Scary
MERESSE VANESSA BELGIUM
Cooperation – different units in the parliament work together to solve youth unemployment Communication Evolution of info-technology
WITOLD POLAND
RENATO ROSSI ITALY
Challenging Difficult New experience
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Poverty Dream job Young people
VOX POPS
PATRICK BARAGIOLA BELGIUM
Difficulties Languages Capacity to adapt
WIEBKE SYDOW GERMANY
The most Important Thing
NAME THREE THINGS THAT COME TO YOUR MIND WHEN THINKING OF YOUNG PEOPLE ENTERING THE JOB MARKET.
VOX POPS
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Print Workshop : EY
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YMD 2013
hind the Scenes
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online: orangemagazine.eu europeanyouthpress.eu