Youth unemployment: Action teams in 8 states On February 24 will end the "Action teams" meetings with representatives of Italy, Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Latvia, Spain, Lithuania and Slovakia the 8 EU States with highest unemployment – tabled by the European Commission to identify measures to combat youth unemployment. The team of experts were agreed in the European Council of January 30. Over the past ten days they held a first round of meetings with authorities in the eight countries and starting next week they will refer to the Executive in Brussels on the outcomes. The President of the EU Commission, José Manuel Barroso, will thus submit a dedicated report to the EU27 summit of March 1-2. Each of the 8 countries will then introduce employment-boosting measures for the youth within their respective national economic growth plans, in the framework of the European Semester. Action teams are representatives of the national authorities and social partners (enterprises, unions, educational establishment) as well as Commission officers. "Levels of youth unemployment are reaching very high levels in some Member States", declared the Commission in a release. We must do everything to help young people get in to work, education or training. We must ensure that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) creators of 80% of jobs in Europe get affordable access to financing, avoiding restrictions on usual sources of financing". The end-of-January Council decided that the specific task of the Action teams is "work with the national authorities and national social partners on targeted actions to combat youth unemployment". Measures include helping national authorities in reallocating European Funds (Cohesion Fund, Regional Development Fund and Social Fund; these eight countries use only a portion of the funds). President Barroso mentioned at the European Council a overall figure of EUR 82bn as being still unallocated for concrete projects in all 27 Member States. The EU Commission website presents an analysis of the reasons underlying youth unemployment in these Countries. "It is impossible to generalise. In Greece and Ireland or Portugal (under the EU/IMF programmes) the causes are linked to the consequences of the economic and financial crisis, often exacerbated by existing structural difficulties. In other Member States like Slovakia, Lithuania and Latvia the skills mismatch between the labour market demand and supply is one of the main causes. In Italy several factors played together, such as labour market segmentation and an unbalanced unemployment support system which created inter-generational inequalities. Spain suffers from very high level of early school leavers which impacts on the ability of the labour force to match the demand for certain skills". Commission "suspends" Hungary’s cohesion funds "The Commission’s decision is to be regarded as an incentive to correct a deviation, not as a punishment": the Commissioner for Monetary and Economic Affairs Olli Rehn thus commented on the decision taken by the Executive on February 22 to suspend commitments of the EU Cohesion Fund for Hungary, because of non-compliance with the latest Council recommendation in January to correct its excessive deficit. The Commission proposes to suspend 495 million euro of EU Cohesion Fund commitments for Hungary for 2013". Indeed, the Commissioner points out, "Hungary has until 1st January next year to bring its deficit back on track and avoid these consequences". However, this new provision is unrelated to the three infringements procedures on constitutional and juridical issues launched by the Commission. "The Executive will address the question of the infringement procedures in the coming weeks", Rehn said, and it will do so on the basis of the reply submitted a few days ago by the government of Viktor Orban. "In any case, they are two different procedures". The Commission’s proposal "is intended to encourage Hungary to redress the situation", added Commissioner for Regional Policy Johannes Hahn. "The Commission’s proposal is proportionate". If Hungary shouldn’t intervene with determined measures, part of the allocated funds will be suspended in 2013. "In fact, the measure only involves the Cohesion Fund", thus the other funds, such as the European Social Fund are not affected. "Hungary has enough time to undertake virtuous action on its deficit and avoid the effects of the provision". Hahn added that "ongoing projects will continue receiving previously allocated funds".
