The European Parliament approved a resolution which gathers proposals to tackle youth unemployment. Among such proposals, MEPs suggest devising a "European Investment Plan" to create new jobs, reallocating EU structural funds to projects to create them for young people, and introducing a "European Youth Guarantee".

A resolution approved in plenary session by MEPs includes a set of proposals to tackle youth unemployment in the EU. In February 2012, MEPs already proposed introducing a Youth Guarantee scheme to secure the right of every young person to be offered a job. In the text, adopted by a show of hands, MEPs back the "Youth Opportunities Initiative" communication proposed by the Commission, but say they have serious doubts as to whether the scale of the actions proposed is proportionate to the gravity of the current youth unemployment crisis experienced in many member states. In early 2011, unemployment in the EU averaged 10% and youth unemployment 22.1%, up from 14.7% in 2008. It ranges from well below 10% in some EU Member States to 50% in those hardest hit by the crisis. For this reason, MEPs therefore urge Member States to devise a "European Investment Plan" to boost inclusive sustainable and job-rich growth.

Among the proposals included into the text, the European Parliament asks to redeploy into projects for young people a substantial part of €82 billion in EU structural funds, out of the total €347 billion for 2007-2013 that had yet to be allocated. Moreover, MEPs also ask the Commission to consider increasing the EU share of project costs co-funded with national governments of the eight EU countries worst affected by youth unemployment (Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Italy).

On the other hand, the European Parliament proposes having into account the resolution passed in 2010, in which it called on the Council and Commission to devise a "European Youth Guarantee", on the basis of what already exists in some member states such as Austria, to give every young person in the EU the right to a job, an apprenticeship, further training or a job combined with training, if they have been out of work for four months.