Berlin, 03/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - Once again, the European leaders hammered home their determination to work together to fight youth unemployment. German Chancellor Angela Merkel put together a joint day of work featuring a meeting of the heads of the European employment services, an exchange of best practices of the 28 ministers for employment and a discussion on this basis between some 20 heads of state. After this major session, a declaration summed up the short-term and long-term commitments of all parties (public employment services, social partners, employment ministers, European Commission, European Investment Bank). The focus of this meeting was to discuss the best use to make of the €8 billion earmarked for youth over the next two years (as agreed after the most recent European summit at the end of June).
“We focused on the money and the measures to implement to make sure that things move forward and that young people have more chances of finding jobs”, Merkel stated after the conference. In order to do this, the European leaders concentrated on “looking at what works, so that this can be rolled out to all of the countries”, added French President François Hollande.
The roadmap states the member states' desire to work more closely together. It recommends that the employment ministers carry out structural reforms of the employment services, develop training systems which focus on companie' needs (interim report in November) and use the youth guarantee to subsidise wage bills and help young people get onto the employment market. Another important dimension concerns access to credit for SMEs and business creation. In order to promote this, we must “properly mobilise EIB credits and loans”, the French president stressed.
The Commission aims to do more to promote workers' mobility, via the EURES portal, the launch of the European Alliance for Apprenticeship and the implementation of Erasmus + from January 2014.
Hollande has already stated that his country was offering its services as host of a monitoring meeting to be held later this year. “It will not be about repeating what can be done, but what we have already done and what we are going to do, and what is preventing us from moving youth forward. This is a national and European obligation”, he explained, against a backdrop of plenty of criticism of these “inter-governmental shows” and their electorate-pleasing emphases.
In view of President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso, it is a question of “maintaining this pace and this head of steam, because we now have to translate words into actions”. The president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, stressed that “social employment policies remain a matter for the nations' competency” and that these decisions have to be transposed at national level, adding that “short-term emergency measures” are also required, without “waiting for growth to create jobs”. (MD/transl.fl)