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BackThe EU Heads of State and Government met for the umpteenth time in Milan this week to get a grip on youth unemployment. EU-wide funds available include a budget of a trillion euros as well as co-financings of the Member States. The EU Youth Guarantee is one of many options to get on top of youth unemployment. However, the budget amounts to just six billion euros – and not even this sum has been collected by Member States.
Only investments will enable Europe to get out of the crisis
The level of unemployment in the Euro countries continues to be high. According to the Statistical Office of the European Union EUROSTAT, the rate in August stood for the third consecutive month at 11.5 percent - 18.3 million people were out of a job. There is a desperate search for formulas, which could bring about change, and the way it looks the EU Commission has finally recognized that only investments can pave the way for getting out of the persistent job crisis. Hence, the proposal by EU Commission President Juncker to implement an investment programme of additional 300 billion euros over the coming three years. For the most part, this plan follows the call of the European trade unions for a "Marshall Plan" for Europe. Austria already leads the way in demonstrating what can be achieved if one is serious about finding solutions. Apart from the job guarantee, which has been successful in Austria for many years, one has now put together a labour market package, which has been funded with 370 million euros for the years 2014 to 2016. Integration allowances and expanding the second labour market shall help to reintegrate for example older unemployed people into the labour market. The fact that a commitment concerning public investments exists in Austria, makes this possible. However, unfortunately it is the case that fiscal rules are seriously restricting the room for manoeuvre of many states in respect of public investments. Hence, these rules should be reviewed for long-term public investments in order to expand the required scope again. Europe has to grow out of the crisis, not least to reduce national debt.
The crisis policy of recent years did not get us anywhere
It is quite apparent that the crisis policy of recent years did not bring the desired growth; both demand and investments declined. Hence, one can only hope that not yet another special summit has to be convened to come to the realisation that concepts are needed that differ from those, which went before. So far, the results of special summits on youth employment have been meagre. Some critics have even commented that they regard such conferences as nothing more than social cosmetics.
The level of unemployment in the Euro countries continues to be high. According to the Statistical Office of the European Union EUROSTAT, the rate in August stood for the third consecutive month at 11.5 percent - 18.3 million people were out of a job. There is a desperate search for formulas, which could bring about change, and the way it looks the EU Commission has finally recognized that only investments can pave the way for getting out of the persistent job crisis. Hence, the proposal by EU Commission President Juncker to implement an investment programme of additional 300 billion euros over the coming three years. For the most part, this plan follows the call of the European trade unions for a "Marshall Plan" for Europe. Austria already leads the way in demonstrating what can be achieved if one is serious about finding solutions. Apart from the job guarantee, which has been successful in Austria for many years, one has now put together a labour market package, which has been funded with 370 million euros for the years 2014 to 2016. Integration allowances and expanding the second labour market shall help to reintegrate for example older unemployed people into the labour market. The fact that a commitment concerning public investments exists in Austria, makes this possible. However, unfortunately it is the case that fiscal rules are seriously restricting the room for manoeuvre of many states in respect of public investments. Hence, these rules should be reviewed for long-term public investments in order to expand the required scope again. Europe has to grow out of the crisis, not least to reduce national debt.
The crisis policy of recent years did not get us anywhere
It is quite apparent that the crisis policy of recent years did not bring the desired growth; both demand and investments declined. Hence, one can only hope that not yet another special summit has to be convened to come to the realisation that concepts are needed that differ from those, which went before. So far, the results of special summits on youth employment have been meagre. Some critics have even commented that they regard such conferences as nothing more than social cosmetics.