EU Leaders Meet on Youth Unemployment Crisis
Baku, November 13 (AZERTAC). Heads of state from 24 European countries gathered Tuesday to address an increasingly visible scar from the region`s debt crisis: almost a quarter of young Europeans are unemployed.
Leaders meeting in Paris aren`t expected to come up with any new Europe-wide policies. Rather, they will review pledges already made and compare measures taken on national levels. In particular, they are looking at how to deliver on an EU pledge to propose employment or training to young people without a job, French officials said.
Ahead of the meeting, the French government said Europe has earmarked €45 billion ($60.33 billion) for tackling European youth unemployment between 2013 and 2015. That includes funds from Europe`s social budget, investment from the European Investment Bank and a June pledge from heads of state to advance the disbursement of cash to regions with particularly high youth unemployment.
Youth unemployment reflects the dynamics of the euro zone's debt crisis, with widening economic disparities between regions. In Spain, over 56% of under-25s are out of work and in Greece the figure is over 59%. Meanwhile, in Germany, youth unemployment is below 8%.
The Paris summit is the second on the youth unemployment crisis, following from a meeting in Berlin in July. That meeting was dominated by the buildup to the September elections that Angela Merkel went on to win. Her rivals at the time criticized the chancellor, saying the meeting was a public relations exercise.
The Paris summit comes at a crucial juncture for French President François Hollande, too. With unemployment hovering around 16-year highs of 11% and youth unemployment over 25%, the president is struggling to convince voters he has an answer to the problem ahead of local and European elections in the spring.
A poll of 1,006 people last week by CSA showed only 25% of French people are confident Mr. Hollande can resolve France`s problems, the lowest score in the 20-year history of the polling company's monthly measure.
As Standard & Poor`s Ratings Services downgraded France to AA from AA+ last week, the ratings firm also cast doubt on Mr. Hollande`s policies, including state-sponsored jobs for young people. There is still a strong risk that unemployment will remain above 10% until 2016, S&P said.
Observers were skeptical whether Tuesday's summit of EU leaders would make any tangible progress.
“The fact that there is no visibility on actions only creates further frustration, as it leads to a lost generation and a negative impact on the vision of Europe,” Gunilla Almgren, who heads European entrepreneur lobby UEAPME.
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