Sweden takes on youth illiteracy and unemployment

As the economic crisis unfolds, youngsters tend to be particularly at risk of unemployment, with twice as many young people in the EU out of jobs compared to other age groups in the 27-nation club.

Access to education is still unequal and subject to ethnic, racial and gender discrimination, Ms Sabuni stressed, noting that 20 percent of Europe's children have poor literacy skills.

In Romania, for instance, one of the EU's newest member states, the number of school children dropping out of school before the age of 14 is increasing - from 0.6 percent in 2000 to 2 percent in 2008. One in five school children did not finished their studies last year, data from the national education ministry shows.

Although youth and education policies are the responsibility of member states, the EU could better co-ordinate the various national approaches, the Swedish presidency says.

The current framework, dating back to 2001, expires this year and has been deemed inefficient by the European Commission, which tabled new proposals to be adopted by the member states in November.

The Stockholm event was aimed at opening the discussion on the commission's proposals to a larger audience and taking some of the input from youth organisations back to the negotiation table, before a final decision is taken.

"It is important to work directly with young people. Many politicians believe that young people are not interested in politics, but that's not true", a young participant from Austria said, according to the EU presidency website.

In its proposals, the EU executive encourages national, regional and local administrations to develop a "cross-sectoral approach" to youth issues, so that the ministries of health, education or employment take into account youngsters' needs when developing their policies.

A commission official addressing the Stockholm event said this broader approach would be a "great leap forward" if approved by member states.

However, youth organisations criticised the EU executive for not establishing proper control mechanisms and leaving implementation solely to national authorities.

"The mechanisms and structures needed to achieve cross-sector cooperation on horizontal issues are not included clearly and concretely. Cross-sector approach to youth policy should always also include youth participation," the European Youth Forum (YFJ), an umbrella network of 99 national youth organisations in Europe, said in a statement.

The commission's objectives and actions are also "too general" and fail to ensure "accessibility to and inclusiveness of education for all young people," it continued.

See more on European education in EUobserver's special focus section