00 26/11/2007 11:12
Hi everybody!
As we previewed a couple of weeks ago, last Wednesday 21st took place the conference organized by Generation P network inside the European Parliament against the exploitation of Internships in Europe.

This is the draft press realease of the event:

Brussels, 23rd November 2007 - On Wednesday, a conference on the topic of Internships as Precarious Work in Europe was organised inside the European Parliament by the European intern network “Generation P”. This network of national and European associations founded by interns and working for interns took the floor to raise awareness of the exploitation of an entire generation. The Conference was hosted by the European Parliament's Socialist Group in partnership with the new European Parliament's Stagiaire Association. It is the first action in a long-term campaign spearheaded by Generation P. At the centre of the campaign is a petition launched on the same day. It calls for the European Union to conduct research, quantify the problem, and to take action to ensure that minimum local employment standards also apply to interns. The petition can be signed at: http://www.generation-p.dgbj.org/eng/.

"We hope that everyone will add their signature to this petition which is asking Europe to take the problem seriously," Frauke Austermann, representing DGB Jugend and Génération Précaire, the German and French branches of Generation P, explained, "It's important that interns and the family of interns highlight that this is the concern of not just a few unhappy interns, this is something worrying a whole generation and their parents."

The Generation P Network is currently composed of associations from Austria (Plattform Generation Praktikum), Belgium (European Parliament Stagiaire Association), France (Génération Précaire), Germany (DGB Jugend, and Fairwork e.V.), and Italy (Generazione 1000 Euro).

"We are grateful for the support of key MEPs who have backed us up since the beginning, the presence of European Parliament Vice-President Gerard Onesta, of MEPs Stephen Hughes and Harlem Désir, and the logistical support offered by MEP Michael Cashman were invaluable," said Kim Smouter, co-founder of the European Parliament Stagiaire Association, "We know that we have a long battle ahead of us, but we also know that if nothing is done, the exploitation of a whole generation will continue and worsen throughout Europe."

Many of the associations who presented their findings in Brussels are already veterans of similar actions at national level; Génération Précaire France has even been invited by its Government to negotiate statutory minimum standards.

"All our associations are trying to work with whomever wants to work with us to improve the situation," Nicolas Tamalet representing Génération Précaire explained, "But we're facing a serious lack of will from employers and from Governments who don't seem to care. All involved are reaping the short-term benefits of exploiting interns, but in the end it is our economy's long-term welfare that is being slowly eaten away."

Anna Schopf, from Plattform Generation Praktikum Austria agrees: "As posts for fully trained up employees get replaced by internships, the result is that social security contributions are being circumvented. 4 years worth of internship also means 4 years worth of no social security contributions - and when we consider to think that we need to save every penny possible to pay for the rising social security costs of the ageing population, such reckless exploitation of the younger generation is inexcusable."

The issues were debated by an expert panel that included Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, and Equal Opportunities Vladimir Spidla, John Monks the Secretary General for the ETUC, Conny Reuter the Secretary General for SOLIDAR, and Ania Skrzypek the Secretary General of ECOSY. Moderating the panel was experienced Katrin Teschner, correspondent for the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung.

Florian Lamp, representative of Fairwork e.V also sat on the panel and highlighted his own personal experiences of doing numerous internship posts paid EUR 400,00 and how in comparison to others he was in fact rich: "We're a generation, that is more educated than ever, and yet end their academic career to work full time and be paid salaries that don't even pay our rents let alone living expenses."

For the petition to be successful, the Generation P Network is well aware that a broad coalition will be needed, Silvia Helbig representing DGB Jugend, the youth branch of Germany's leading trade union confederation called for everyone to sign the petition in solidarity: "We're not here to abolish internships, we're here to work together to make sure that each and every internship provider fulfils the promise they give to their interns - an internship should stop being seen as some sort of low-cost employee. Employers and Governments have to realise that with an intern comes the added responsibility of proper training, clear contracts, and fair remuneration."

So, our advice is to SIGN UP THE PETITION to give your contribution to rise up our voices asking a better treatment for Interns all over Europe!
Thanx,
Antonio