With the rate of young jobless in the EU still at nearly double its pre-crisis level, and the UK experiencing exceptionally high levels of unemployment, this report calls on the Government to rethink the way it uses European funding. The Government needs to use EU money to support the introduction of a Youth Guarantee, rather than putting the funds towards existing domestic measures such as the Youth Contract. The Youth Contract had underperformed and was not popular in the private sector, while the Youth Guarantee had been successful in other European countries. Five regions in the UK were highlighted in the report as having unemployment levels so high that they qualified for additional EU funding. These areas were: Tees Valley & Durham; West Midlands; South Western Scotland; Inner London; and Merseyside. The Committee is urging the Government use the European funding to run pilot Youth Guarantee schemes in these five areas. Other recommendations made in the report include: a move away from a centralised management of EU funds and make the most of local authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships, who have links to specialist organisations in their areas; when it comes to careers advice, the Government should use EU money to fund more traditional face-to-face careers advice, rather than focusing on online support; and more needs to be done to address the skills mismatch in the EU - a particular example being in ICT

This report provides an overview of the work of the European Union Committee in session 2013-14. It highlights some of the key policies examined through scrutiny work and inquiries, reflects on the Committee's work with the EU institutions and other national parliaments, and gives a forward look at the work being undertaken in session 2014-15.

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.tandfebooks.com/doi/view/10.4324/9781315401867, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license. This book brings together academics, members of European institutions, and regional and national level policymakers in order to assess the performance and direction of EU Cohesion policy against the background of the most significant reforms to the policy in a generation. Responding to past criticisms of the effectiveness of the policy, the policy changes introduced in 2013 have aligned European Structural and Investment Funds with the Europe 2020 strategy and introduced measures to improve strategic coherence, performance and integrated development. EU Cohesion Policy: Reassessing performance and direction argues that policy can only be successfully developed and implemented if there is input from both academics and practitioners. The chapters in the book address four important issues: the effectiveness and impact of Cohesion policy at European, national and regional levels; the contribution of Cohesion policy to the Europe 2020 strategy of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth; the importance of quality of government and administrative capacity for the effective management of the Funds; and the inter-relationships between institutions, territory and place-based policies. The volume will be an invaluable resource to students, academics and policymakers across economics, regional studies, European studies and international relations.

This interdisciplinary book consists of three parts which examine the European Union policies on research and innovation, education and life-long learning, as well as the European Union Pillar on social rights and youth policies. In the first part, high-level experts analyze the European Research Area and its current enhancement, with emphasis on mobility and employability of researchers, especially in times of crises.In the second part, the governance architecture of the European Education Area(s) is explored and the new objectives of the Bologna Process, as well as the EU institutional framework of the recognition of skills and qualifications, are analyzed. Life-long learning is also important for the individual development of human capital especially for socially vulnerable people who could also benefit from literacy policies and skills development. The second part concludes with the evaluation of the EU education and training policy based on social indicators in the framework of the EU 2020 Strategy.In the third part, the book turns to Social Europe and the balancing between ordo-liberalism and ordo-socialism. It examines the EU Pillar of Social Rights and its impact on youth policies. It analyzes the EU youth policies e.g. on youth credit and their interaction with young people’s employment and education possibilities, with emphasis on the young people "not in education, employment or training" (NEETs).

Globalization is a multi-dimensional concept reflecting the increased economic, social, cultural, and political integration of countries. There has been no pinpointed consensus on the history of globalization; however, the globalization process has gained significant speed as of the 1980s in combination with liberalization. Many countries have removed or loosened barriers over the international flows of goods, services, and production factors. In this context, both liberalization and globalization have led to considerable institutional, economic, social, cultural, and political changes in the world. The liberalization and globalization processes have affected economic units, institutions, cultures, social lives, and national and international politics. The Handbook of Research on Institutional, Economic, and Social Impacts of Globalization and Liberalization provides a comprehensive evaluation of the institutional, economic, and social impacts of globalization and liberalization processes across the world. While highlighting topics like economics, finance, business, and public administration, this book is ideally intended for government officials, policymakers, practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, and academicians interested in the international impacts of globalization and liberalization across a variety of different domains.

The Eurozone has exited recession and there are positive indications of progress in countries such as Ireland, Portugal and Spain; but the report Euro Area Crisis: An Update (HL 163) concludes that the Eurozone remains weak and vulnerable. Despite some countries showing signs of recovery, the report finds that fundamental weaknesses still exist such as: poor growth; huge differences in prosperity between Member States destructively high levels of unemployment; and growing fears of a deflationary spiral. These weaknesses leave the Eurozone extremely vulnerable to future shocks. The Committee also repeats its warning to the Government that the UK is becoming increasingly isolated as the euro area knits closer together. In order to ensure the UK's interests are effectively promoted, the Government and the Bank of England should maintain and develop constructive relationships with the increasingly

Vols. for 1963- include as pt. 2 of the Jan. issue: Medical subject headings.