One of basic (fundamental) rights in the European Union is free movement of persons. This right is widely utilised by young people and students. EU promotes youth access to the labour market, strengthening trainee, internship and apprenticeship status in following overall strategies, such as Lisbon strategy and Strategy 2020 and number of analytical documents.

European Parliament resolution of 6 July 2010 on promoting youth access to the labour market, strengthening trainee, internship and apprenticeship status (2009/2221(INI)) is taking many information and trends into consideration – such as:

• The economic crisis has caused a massive rise in unemployment rates in the EU Member States; whereas young people have been disproportionately affected by this trend

• There are few possibilities for young people to find permanent regular employment;

• Employers seem to be using traineeships and internships more frequently to replace regular employment

• Youth unemployment and underemployment impose heavy social and economic costs

• Transition from education to work and between jobs is a structural challenge for young people all over the EU; whereas apprenticeships have a largely positive impact on young people’s access to employment, especially if they enable the direct in-house acquisition of work skills and expertise

This resolution proposes tools, how to reduce unemployment of young people. One of effective tools are

• Better and secured internships; calls on the Commission and the Council, following the commitment given in Communication COM (2007)0498 ‘to propose an initiative for a European quality charter on internships’, to set up a European Quality Charter on Internships setting out minimum standards for internships to ensure their educational value and avoid exploitation, taking into account that internships form part of education and must not replace actual jobs. These minimum standards should include an outline of the job description or qualifications to be acquired, a time limit on internships, a minimum allowance based on standard-of-living costs in the place where the internship is performed that comply with national traditions, insurance in the area of their work, social security benefits in line with local standards and a clear connection to the educational programme in question;

• To provide statistics on internships in each Member State which include: number of internships, length of internships, social benefits for interns, allowances paid to interns, age groups of interns; and to produce a comparative study on the different internship schemes existing in the EU Member States

Erasmus + programme is one of most important examples of implementing tool of European Union in the area of internships.