Following a July summit in Berlin, initiated by the German chancellor Andrea Merkel, French President Francois Hollande opens the conference on youth unemployment in EU, concerning 7.5 million young people, aged 15-24, who are are neither in work, education or training.
The objective, that is to obtain results within two years, even with 12 billion euros (HK$124 billion) of financial support of the European Investment Bank, seems rather ambitious as not less than an average youth joblessness rate standing at at 23.5 % needs to be increased dramatically. In Germany it is only 7.7% followed by the Netherlands and Austria wher it is still below 10 %, Denmark and Malta with only approx. 14%. On the other end of the list, 50 % in debt-crippled southern countries such as Greece or Spain, or nearly 40 % in Italy Portugal and Slovakia, around 30% in Cyprus, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Ireland.The Czech Republic, Estonia and Luxemburg (around 19%), Romania and Belgium (22%) are in a better situation than Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden or France where the quarter of young people is unemployed.
European Social Fund plan to participate in the saving of the “lost generation”.
Hungarian university students protesting agains restrictive measures of the government ( December 2012)