City authorities play a crucial role in fighting poverty and social exclusion, and combine this with knowledge of the local context.

Considering that most social policies, such as combating youth unemployment, are implemented at local level, city authorities should be strongly involved in the design and implementation of policies related to the social pillar.

One way to turn the European Pillar of Social Rights objectives into more concrete initiatives would be to link it to the Urban Agenda for the EU. The urban partnerships, including the one on jobs and skills in the local economy, offer an already existing multilevel governance model that could be used in the fight against youth unemployment.

Read more on the issue in the EUobserver article “Youth worst affected by labour market gaps” published by Andreas Schonstrom.