The Regionalist Parliamentary Group will take to this Monday’s Plenary, 9 November, a motion with which it will urge the Government of Cantabria (PP) to constitute the Youth Policy Council before 15 December and to present the first Comprehensive Youth Plan within a maximum period of one month from the creation of that body.
The initiative will be defended by the deputy and PRC spokesperson on Youth, Javier López Estrada, before “the failure by the Executive of the calendar established in the Cantabria Youth Policy Law for the implementation of both instruments,” he lamented in a press release.
Along these lines, he criticized that, ten months after the law came into force, the regional Executive “still has not put” into operation two of its main tools, “despite the fact that the statutory deadline for submitting the Comprehensive Plan expired on 12 September.”
The regionalist has recalled that the rule was drafted by Juventudes Regionalistas, promoted by the PRC and approved with the backing of the PP, with the aim of setting a framework for action that will make it possible to address the challenges facing Cantabrian youth, in particular access to housing, labor instability and the lack of opportunities to develop their life project in the region.
“Young people in Cantabria cannot keep waiting while the Government fails to meet the deadlines of a law that the Partido Popular itself supported,” he stressed.
The motion that will be debated on Monday stems from the interpellation put forward by the PRC in the last Plenary. López Estrada emphasized that the Minister of Social Inclusion and Youth, Begoña Gómez del Río, “acknowledged the delay in the constitution of the Council and announced the submission of a draft of the Comprehensive Plan in December.”
The deputy rejected that the Executive “try to hide behind participation and listening to justify the delays,” because “its obligation is to reconcile the involvement of youth organizations, town councils and social entities with compliance with the deadlines and commitments it has assumed and that are approved by law.”
In addition, he reiterated the need to put the Council and the Comprehensive Plan into operation as soon as possible in order to tackle the obstacles faced by the young population when it comes to emancipation and achieving stable employment in Cantabria, where the youth emancipation rate stands at 11.7 percent, compared with 14.5 percent for the national average.
"We cannot resign ourselves to the fact that our young people have to leave Cantabria because they cannot find affordable housing or a job that allows them to build their future, while the Government delays its commitments instead of promoting coordinated policies endowed with the resources necessary," the PRC deputy said.
Lastly, he reiterated the PRC’s willingness to collaborate in the development of the Youth Law and called for "responsibility and diligence" from the Executive, so that it "stops announcing plans and starts putting them into motion."