Brussels, 10/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - The education and job prospects for youngsters in Romania were the focus of an official visit by EU Education, Youth, Culture and Multilingualism Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou in the country's capital, Bucharest, on 10-11 March. She addressed an event on Monday 10 March organised by the Romanian education ministry and the European Commission on the problem of young people not in education or training - NEETs. “As in many European countries, the youth unemployment figures in Romania are deeply worrying and represent a huge waste of human talent. Despite some recent progress, the share of low achievers in reading maths and science and early school-leavers in Romanian schools is very high, and this only exacerbates the NEETs problem. Education and training systems need to promote supportive learning environments, focusing on the needs of individual pupils, and to urgently address skills mismatches,' commented Vassiliou. On 11 March, the commissioner launched a new programme, Erasmus+, the EU's new training programme for education, training, youth and sport, which will provide grants for 120,000 Romanians to study, train, gain work experience or volunteer abroad over the next seven years. Vassiliou will also visit Roma projects in the capital, accompanied by Hungarian-born philanthropist George Soros, a long-time campaigner for Roma rights. (IL)