France hosts meeting on youth unemployment in EU
Europe's leaders gather in Paris on Tuesday at a meeting hosted by President François Hollande to discuss how to combat youth unemployment.
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According to the European Commission's latest statistics, the EU-wide youth joblessness rate stands at 23.5 percent. A total of 7.5 million aged 15 - 24 year olds are neither in work, education or training.
The youth unemployment rate varies hugely across Europe, in Germany it is at 7.7 percent but more than 50 per cent of young people are out of work in debt-crippled southern countries such as Greece or Spain.
EU members have pledged 12 billion euros to tackle the problem over the next two years while the European Investment Bank and European Social Fund plan to spend similar amounts.
Among the EU initiatives launched at a similar meeting in July in Berlin to tackle the problem is a "youth guarantee" scheme, whereby young people are to be given a job opportunity, further education or training within four months of leaving school.
The focus on training can help Europe's youth become more employable but many observers argue that no dramatic changes in joblessness statistics can be expected without economic growth.
France's youth unemployment hovers around 25 percent and president Hollande has pledged a return to employment growth by the year's end, but the chances of achieving that goal seem slim.
France and other countries allege that current regulations allows Germany, which has no minimum wage, to employ millions of posted workers on "mini-jobs" with no social protection, creating unfair competition within the bloc.
At today’s meeting Paris will seek support for a revision of the EU workers' directive in a bid to tackle an influx of low-paid labour.
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