As a European network of nearly fifty youth organisations working daily with disadvantaged young people across 20 EU Member States, the YES Forum welcomes the Communication and the open, consultative process that shaped it.
We were pleased to contribute to the Strategic Dialogue and the public consultation in 2025, and we see in the final text a genuine effort to listen to civil society and to those implementing the Pillar on the ground. Rather than replacing the 2021 Action Plan, the Communication complements it: the 20 principles remain, including the shared framework, and the three 2030 headline targets on employment, skills and poverty reduction.
We are encouraged to see several themes from our consultation input reflected in the text, including
- the strengthened European Child Guarantee,
- the intergenerational fairness perspective,
- improved poverty indicators that better capture lived realities, and
- the explicit recognition of civil society as a central partner in delivery.
We value this continuity, and the Commission’s acknowledgment that real work lies ahead to achieve these goals. While the EU is on course to meet its employment target, adult participation in learning and poverty reduction remain short of where they need to be, with the reduction of only around 3.5 million people at risk of poverty or social exclusion since 2019, against a target of 15 million.
What has changed is the focus. The Communication identifies three new pressure points, these are:
- the cost of living and affordability,
- artificial intelligence and the future of work, and
- inequalities and equal opportunities,
and proposes targeted actions including
- A Quality Jobs Act,
- an Affordable Housing Act,
- a European Care Deal and
- a High-Level Expert Group on AI and the labour market.
Affordable housing is a topic especially close to the lives of disadvantaged young people, and therefore the theme of our upcoming Policy Event in 2026, ‘From housing insecurity to EU scepticism: addressing key challenges facing young people and the EU today.’
Looking ahead to the post-2027 EU Youth Strategy and the Pillar's anniversary year, the YES Forum stands ready to continue this collaboration. We would particularly welcome dialogue on how the Child Guarantee can support gradual, sustained transitions into adulthood for young people leaving care and on communicating EU policy developments in a way that is accessible to frontline social and youth workers and to young people themselves.
The Pillar remains, as the Commission writes, Europe's social compass and the YES Forum and our members, look forward to implementing it on the ground.
Learn more about the EPSR on our website: YES Forum - Empowering young people - European Pillar of Social Rights
