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having regard to Article 225 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU),

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having regard to Article 292 TFEU, in conjunction with Articles 153 and 166 TFEU,

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having regard to Article 153(2), point (b), TFEU, in conjunction with Article 153(1), point (b), TFEU,

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having regard to Council Recommendation of 10 March 2014 on a Quality Framework for Traineeships (1) (‘2014 Council Recommendation’),

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having regard to the Commission’s factual summary report of 3 August 2022 of the online public consultation in support to the evaluation of the 2014 Council Recommendation on a Quality Framework for Traineeships (QFT) (2),

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having regard to the Eurofound report of 27 July 2017 entitled ‘Fraudulent contracting of work: Abusing traineeship status (Austria, Finland, Spain and UK)’  (3),

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having regard to the Commission report of October 2018 entitled ‘Traineeships under the Youth Guarantee — Experience from the ground’  (4),

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having regard to the Commission communication of 4 October 2016 entitled ‘The Youth Guarantee and Youth Employment Initiative three years on’ (COM(2016)0646),

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having regard to the Commission Staff Working Document of 4 October 2016 entitled ‘Applying the Quality Framework for Traineeships’ (SWD(2016)0324),

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having regard to Council Recommendation of 30 October 2020 on A Bridge to Jobs — Reinforcing the Youth Guarantee and replacing the Council Recommendation of 22 April 2013 on establishing a Youth Guarantee (5),

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having regard to its resolution of 8 October 2020 on the Youth Guarantee (6),

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having regard to its resolution of 17 December 2020 on a strong social Europe for just transitions (7),

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having regard to its resolution of 17 February 2022 on empowering European youth: post-pandemic employment and social recovery (8),

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having regard to its resolution of 24 November 2022 on the European Year of Youth 2022 legacy (9),

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having regard to the European Pillar of Social Rights, proclaimed by the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on 17 November 2017 at the Gothenburg Summit, in particular to its Principles No 1 and 4, the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan and the 2021 Porto Social Summit Declaration committing to work towards a Social Europe and reinforcing social cohesion,

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having regard to the Conference on the Future of Europe outcome document of 30 November 2022, adopted within the framework of the European Year of Youth, in particular proposal No 47, measure No 5, calling to ‘ensure that young people’s internships and jobs adhere to quality standards, including remuneration, putting an end to youth minimum wages and any other discriminatory labour law provisions specific to young people, as well as banning through a legal instrument unpaid internships on the labour market and outside formal education’,

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having regard to the Commission’s evaluation of 10 January 2023 of the Council Recommendation on a Quality Framework on Traineeships,

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having regard to the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to which all EU Member States are a State Party to, in particular Article 7, point (a)(i), on fair wages and equal remuneration, Article 7, point (c), on equal opportunities for everyone, and Article 9 on the right to social security for everyone,

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having regard to Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 October 2019 establishing a common framework for European statistics relating to persons and households, based on data at individual level collected from samples, amending Regulations (EC) No 808/2004, (EC) No 452/2008 and (EC) No 1338/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council, and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1177/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 (10),

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having regard to the Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2021-2030,

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having regard to its resolution of 13 December 2022 entitled ‘towards equal rights for persons with disabilities’  (11),

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having regard to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 2006,

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having regard to Rules 47 and 54 of its Rules of Procedure,

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having regard to the opinion of the Committee on Culture and Education,

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having regard to the report of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (A9-0186/2023),

A.

whereas traineeships are an important way for young people to gain experience before finding stable employment; whereas traineeships can ease the transition from education or vocational training into the labour market; whereas it is crucial that optimal conditions and incentives are established to enable young people to have access to high-quality traineeships that will provide them with a useful learning experience, as well as work experience and the development of a relevant set of skills; whereas trainees carrying out open labour market traineeships, traineeships in the context of active labour market policies (ALMPs) and traineeships that are part of mandatory professional training should have the right to remuneration as set out in Annex I; whereas trainees carrying out traineeships undertaken with the aim of obtaining educational qualifications should have access to adequate compensation as set out in Annex II;

B.

whereas the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted many educational and employment opportunities and thus created obstacles to gaining skills; whereas this affected disproportionally mainly school to work transition of young people coming from disadvantaged background;

C.

whereas different types of traineeships exist across the Union; whereas a traineeship can be understood to be a limited period of work practice which includes a learning and training component and which a person undertakes in order to gain practical and professional experience with a view to improving that person’s employability and facilitating transition to stable employment; whereas Parliament has repeatedly condemned the practice of unpaid traineeships as a form of exploitation of young workers and a violation of their rights and has called for a common legal framework to ensure fair remuneration for traineeships in order to avoid exploitative practices (12);

D.

whereas most traineeships across the Union can be divided into the categories comprising: open-market traineeships, traineeships in the context of ALMPs, traineeships that are part of professional training and traineeships that are part of an academic or vocational curricula; whereas all these different types of traineeships provide an opportunity for young people to receive training, acquire skills that meet labour market needs and should provide them with easier access to quality jobs in the future while fulfilling their personal needs; whereas the Union, Member States and the social partners have a key role to play in providing access to quality traineeships;

E.

whereas different legal frameworks and approaches regulating traineeships exist across the Union; whereas such regulatory differences exist both between Member States and, in some cases, within Member States;

F.

whereas studies have established links between the quality of traineeships and employment outcomes (13), with remuneration being one of the key quality criteria of what establishes a high-quality traineeship (14);

G.

whereas the 2014 Council Recommendation addresses open-market traineeships and those in the context of ALMPs;

H.

whereas the 2014 Council Recommendation recommends that Member States put in practice the following principles for a quality framework for traineeships: the conclusion of a written traineeship agreements, learning and training objectives, working conditions applicable to trainees, rights and obligations of the trainee and the traineeship provider, the limitation of traineeships to a reasonable duration, the proper recognition of traineeships by means of Union tools (such as Europass), transparency requirements, the establishment of cross-border traineeships, the use of European Structural and Investment Funds to enhance traineeships, and the application of the quality framework for traineeships itself;

I.

whereas a person may experience discrimination differently based on a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, that person’s sex, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or social and economic origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation (15); whereas it is crucial to focus on addressing and overcoming all discrimination in traineeships and ensuring the accessibility of traineeships to persons and groups of persons who are furthest away from the labour market; whereas young people living in weaker financial circumstances, including people living in single-parent households, people with disabilities, migrants, people with lower educational levels, young people not living with their parents and people from low work-intensity households, are less likely to have access to the financial resources required to undertake unpaid or low-paying traineeships (16);

J.

whereas 87 million Union citizens had some form of disability in July 2022; whereas people with disabilities still face barriers when accessing high-quality traineeships and finding employment on the open labour market;

K.

whereas high-quality traineeships are crucial to properly educate and train young people for the needs of the labour market and to tackle skills mismatches and consequent labour market shortages in the Union, while fulfilling the personal interests of the trainee and emphasising the potential added value for both employers and trainees; whereas too many young people are unable to find stable employment because available jobs might not correspond to their skill set; whereas, at the same time, 40 % of employers (17) face difficulties finding employees with the right skills; whereas the Union’s youth unemployment rate is 15,1 %, and in the context of the current cost-of-living crisis, according to Eurostat (18), young people are the group facing the highest risk of living in poverty, with 1 in 4 of young people living at-risk-of-poverty or social exclusion, and with young women living at a higher risk of poverty or social exclusion;

L.

whereas about half of all 15 to 34-year olds in the Union have gained work experience in at least one traineeship; whereas the majority of young people report having worked in two unpaid internships before getting stable employment (19); whereas this means that approximately four million persons take part in at least one traineeship per year in the Union (20);

M.

whereas the majority of trainees questioned during a Eurobarometer survey think that their experience was or would be useful to find stable employment (71 %), but almost one third disagree (28 %) (21);

N.

whereas research confirms that the value of traineeships in facilitating the transition to employment depends on their quality in terms of learning content and working conditions (22);

O.

whereas, according to the above-mentioned Eurobarometer survey, only 40 % of trainees received financial compensation and whereas more than half of those trainees (53 %) considered that compensation to be insufficient to cover their basic living costs (23);

P.

whereas undertaking traineeships in another Member State is still rare, with only 9 % of traineeships in the Union taking place abroad according to a survey done by Eurobarometer (24);

Q.

whereas there is a lack of up-to-date comparative data on traineeships at Union and national level, in particular concerning traineeships on the open labour market; whereas the available data on traineeships in the Union is supported by different definitions, which creates problems in terms of their comparability;

R.

whereas incentives to employers are crucial when offering quality traineeships, in particular where those employers are microenterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises; whereas strengthening digital skills and the necessary digital tools to support trainees while carrying out their traineeship is encouraged; whereas, in this regard, the digital opportunity traineeships programme, offered under the Erasmus+ programme, provides students and young graduates with the opportunity to gain digital skills at work and gain experience in the technology sector; whereas quality traineeships should in general be carried out while being physically present; whereas remote or hybrid work is increasingly the norm in a number of sectors and companies; whereas, in this regard, any remote or hybrid part of a traineeship should be acceptable only when presence in the workplace is not necessary or possible and should comply with quality criteria;