Brussels, 31/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - Ambassador Joanna Wronecka, who heads the EU delegation in Jordan, said at the opening of a seminar on employment, skills and youth in Amman last week that nearly one young Arab out of three is without employment and, in some countries, the proportion is still higher. She explained that half of those without employment in the region are young people, and most of them are women, and that the cost of exclusion is enormous.
Wronecka went on to say that the MENA (Middle East, North Africa) region currently has over 100 million young people between the ages of 15 and 29. She underlined how imbalanced the current situation is saying that there is a huge gap between the skills acquired by young people in the region and the skills that are required by modern economies and societies, which require workers and citizens with an ability to learn throughout their lives, who have a critical mind and who possess technological skills.
The European Union, Wronecka said, has reviewed its partnership for democracy and shared prosperity with its southern neighbours and has significantly increased its funding to support intervention in the southern Mediterranean region. She confirmed the EU's resolve to help strengthen this joint effort to find ideas and mechanisms that meet the expectations of youth, in order to improve and increase participation by young people in key discussions, to resolve their problems and therefore to improve their future. (FB/transl.jl)