How to make our societies more inclusive? (Jobs, Education, Participation)

There are many policy areas to target, therefore in order to make this text more coherent and precise, I will focus on three policy areas which I consider highly important for an inclusive society and to a great extent also concern the youth - Those three areas are Jobs; Education; and Participation.

To begin with jobs, for us in the centre-right spectrum, it is our firm position that jobs are primarily created by the private sector. We therefore need to make it possible for the private market to do its job and provide our citizens with jobs. Indeed, we have way too many adopted policies on job creation, however regardless of our determination to encourage entrepreneurship, cutting taxes for companies, tax incentives and so on and so forth, I am not sure if we have yet achieved the results that we want to.

1st action: Tax policy has a major influence on employment decisions, investment levels and the willingness of entrepreneurs to expand. Of course taxation is a national competence and I do believe that it should remain so. However, Europe is behind in available private capital investments and equity investments, compared for example to the US. Therefore, EU Member States should encourage equity investments and private capital investments through appropriate taxation policies; (e.g tax exemption for dividends, tax exemption on capital gains etc) Also we should highlight the importance of investing in R&D since by increasing those investments will generate innovation and create new jobs. That should be done by enacting tax reforms which favour greater investment and R&D spending. Again, there are EU Member States that offer preferential tax treatment to R&D expenditure however the generosity of R&D tax incentives varies a lot across MS.

2nd action in one sentence: Too much bureaucracy leads to more people in exclusion rather than people in work and inclusion. We need more reduction of bureaucracy at all levels (European, national and regional). This will ease the way of doing business in Europe, especially for SMEs.

3rd action: The state needs to directly assist the youth looking for their first job. Getting a first job is very important since it becomes much easier to compete on the labour market if you carry experience and knowledge.

Internships: Of course member states themselves should not be the only ones responsible for offering young people internships since that increases public expenditure, however an internship helps to tackle social exclusion, and therefore I see the necessity of a fund allocated to that cause and maybe the need for more research on the topic.

Then in Germany, there is a policy providing the possibility of mini-jobs. This policy did not go without criticism in Germany, however we also know that many Germans have benefited from that policy, and if this is a way to close the door of exclusion and open up the door to inclusion, then more research should be made and maybe optimise programmes such as this one.

Lastly, the European Commission has recently decided to maintain the youth guarantee. I am one of those that I did have my concerns when it comes to the youth guarantee and to be honest I still do. However, the reports indicate that the programme is starting to bear fruits, therefore we should observe its results and its proper implementation by the EU Member States.

4th action: It is also a matter of making sure that it pays off to work. We have far too many systems in Europe and beyond, where it does not make a difference to work because of the too generous unemployment benefits. The benefits must be there as the last solution and it cannot be the case that its better to be unemployed than being employed. There must be a clear commitment to search for a job and a commitment to fulfil an education requirement, if education is important to be able to get the specific job.

That leads me to my second point, which is Education. Education systems have to be modernised, so that they respond to the needs of the labour market. We must make sure that we have people that are educated for the jobs that exist. This can be done already in upper secondary school – pupils have to acquire those skills which they need to succeed and lead directly to a job, this is not only important, but essential in societies where people are economically independent.

Moreover, it is important that we provide Higher Education Systems with quality. There must be more cooperation between the universities/colleges, and the actors on the labour market also through dual vocational training; but again it is the obligation of policy makers to put the right education policy framework in place.

Last but not least, in the globalised world we live in today, the familiarity with different cultures and languages has become more and more important. It is therefore important to continue with projects such as Erasmus exchange. I have myself experience from studying abroad, this is an invaluable experience, our generation belongs to a generation which is flexible and can move to where the jobs are, but for that to be possible we need to provide the possibilities to do so.

That brings me to my last point: Participation

Citizens must be able to decide over their own lives and on their own terms. Political participation is important in this matter. Today we see a growing mistrust against politicians and party politics. On one hand, it is a matter of people being in exclusion and losing their faith in that politics can make a change. And on the other hand, it is the feeling that politicians belong to some kind of an elite, that politicians belongs to a special species. In this regard, we must reengage with the public, open up our structures and make it possible for people to be engaged in our parties. I need not talk too much about the need to make it easier for young people to be engaged, but engagement does not only mean being part of an election campaign. It also means access to decision making. According to a study, 72 per cent of 16/18 to 24 years old did not vote in the 2014 European elections, this is highly problematic as young people have different perspectives and by voicing their opinions, we could move the political world forward and avoid generation gap issues. If we want to resolve this existential problem at the core of our democracies, we need to take urgent and efficient action to increase young leadership. And here comes the big discussion on reforming the quota system which although are used as a means to elect more young parliamentarians in certain countries, the majority of these limited seats are allocated to candidates pushing the boundaries of the concept of “young”, often defined as less than 45 years old. All European countries should introduce quotas for young people of maximum 35 years of age.

Finally, in line with the digital revolution, it is time to embrace e-voting to encourage higher turnouts and last but not least we should not forget the role of education in all aspects of our lives and that includes the youth engagement in democratic life. In this regard, free political education is seen as a requirement for more participation