Brussels, 14/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - Allowing unused European structural funds to be transferred in order to contribute to preventing youth unemployment - that is the main objective of expert teams that are to be in eight capitals between 13 and 24 February. The states targeted (Slovakia, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania and Latvia) suffer, on average, youth unemployment of 35.3% among 18-25 year olds, while having, on average, a margin of 20% of 2007-2013 funding still unallocated. The exact amount available to these states is not given, other than the overall figure of €82 billion still not earmarked by the Commission for any specific purpose.
Announced after the informal European Council on 30 January and confirmed the next day with the despatch of letters from José Manuel Barroso to the presidents and/or heads of government of the states concerned, the initiative provides for ad hoc missions by experts from various DGs at the Commission, who will meet representatives of national authorities and social partners. Such missions mainly aim to provide short term solutions to youth unemployment but also to address difficulties experienced by SMEs regarding access to financing.
Italy and Ireland are the two states that are most concerned by the latest objective, while the eastern states (Lithuania, Latvia and Slovakia) are characterised by the fact that skills provided by young workers do not meet the needs of the market. Concerning Portugal and Greece, which already benefit from the assistance of expert groups, especially from the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the new “action teams”, as the Commission calls them, should only focus on the issue of youth employment and SMEs. These above two states have the highest unemployment rates in the EU, 35.1% and 46.6% respectively, after Spain which wins hands down with almost 50% unemployment in this category.
Although sources of youth unemployment are proper to each state and require an individual approach for each country, the main action by Commission experts will above all consist of rescheduling European structural funds compared to their initial objectives. The results of this unusual initiative will be presented by José Manuel Barroso to the European Council in early March, to then be included in the national programmes in mid-April. (JK/transl.jl)