The National Assembly approved, this Thursday, the creation of the Youth Engagement Contract, intended to take over from the Youth Guarantee from March 2022 to bring back to employment those who are most distant from it.
The deputies voted for a government amendment which grants an additional 550 million euros to the “Work and Employment” mission to finance it, on the occasion of the examination of the 2022 finance bill. The device will also mobilize 2,050 billion euros of the 5.4 billion euros budget allocated to the “1 young person, 1 solution” plan.
“Real capital gain”
The executive had lifted the veil on Tuesday on the details of this measure, outlined by the President of the Republic on July 12 and whose presentation was long overdue since the start of the school year. The EYC, which could be proposed by Pôle Emploi, the local Missions and other public and private actors, should make it possible to harmonize the existing support mechanisms for young NEETs (neither in employment nor in training or in studies) and ” intensify and personalize the support offered to them, in exchange for an allowance of up to 500 euros.
In detail, 268 million euros will be used to “strengthen the public employment service to intensify the monitoring of young people placed” in the CEJ, and 140 million will be allocated to the payment of the allowance. The rapporteur for the opinion of the Committee on Social Affairs, MP LR Bernard Perrut, questioned the “real added value” of this new device compared to the Youth Guarantee, and the “realistic character” of the objective announced by the government on Tuesday – 400,000 young people helped in 2022, twice as many as the 200,000 young people to benefit from the Youth Guarantee in 2021. “We do not want to promote assistantship through a youth RSA and even less support promises that would not respect young people who must find confidence in the future, ”he said.
A “tinkering”
But the most virulent criticisms came from the left of the hemicycle. “The account is not there”, affirmed the deputy PS Boris Vallaud, taking again the formula the day before of the secretary general of the CFDT, Laurent Berger. He lambasted a “late” and “insufficient” response, when the number of NEETs is estimated at one million.
François Ruffin (LFI) denounced a “tinkering”, a “last minute tinkering” and a “form of renunciation”. He underlined that from 2021 it is planned to help more than 400,000 young people, via the Youth Guarantee, managed by the local Missions, but also via the Intensive Youth Support (AIJ), piloted by Pôle emploi (objective of 240,000 young people assisted. in 2021).
Labor Minister Élisabeth Borne said she did not want to enter the battle for numbers, underlining the improvement in the economic situation since the start of the year, and recalling that the CEJ is an “open right” – other young people beyond the 400,000 can be accompanied if they wish. According to the Ministry of Labor, Pôle emploi will offer 100,000 CEJs in 2022, which does not exclude other young people from continuing to benefit from the AIJ.