The concern about high unemployment levels in the European Union (EU) has marked the Informal Employment and Social Security Council held on Thursday 28 and Friday 29 in Barcelona.

The Ministers have agreed that more specific strategies should be sought in the short-term, without neglecting consideration of the groundwork for general policies over the coming decade, as the Spanish Minister of Work and Immigration, Celestino Corbacho, explained after chairing the meetings.

“The challenge is to put them into practice, and one measure the European Commission (EC) is working on is that of microloans for young entrepreneurs. There may be a chance of an immediate agreement, as quickly as possible”, Corbacho disclosed.

The European Commissioner for Employment, Vladimir Spidla, confirmed that “the Spanish Presidency is planning a final proposal”, which he was confident would be presented “in the coming weeks”.

The EC’s idea is to allocate around 100 million euros for granting small loans to people in difficulties, such as young people and the long-term unemployed, according to social rather than financial criteria.

Spidla, who attended his last Informal Council as Commissioner, warned that “the months to come will be hard, as there is always a period of time between economic recovery and the recovery of the labor market”.

Another issue observed by Ministers is that Europe has held out better against the economic crisis due to its powerful social system, which has acted as a stabilizer during the crisis, according to Corbacho.

European governments therefore believe that “the future includes maintaining and even strengthening the sustainability of the social protection system”.

The matter currently under scrutiny, added the Spanish Minister and current President of the Council, is “how to tackle this sustainability of the social protection system”.

In previous sessions, which included a meeting of the social Troika (Spain, Belgium and Hungary) with social agents, the “shared view” was that signs of improvement in the economy “are still weak” and unemployment “is still on the rise”, meaning that public incentive measures need to be maintained.

Another of the pillars of the Barcelona discussions was the need to adapt training to new jobs.

In this respect, the Minister for Employment and Social Affairs of Hungary, László Herzog, has stressed that youth unemployment is not only a direct result of the current economic crisis, and therefore appropriate training and support for entrepreneurs is urgent.

The Council of Barcelona has had a hectic work agenda, with three plenary sessions, and a high participation of Ministers and delegations (47 in total), in addition to 260 registered delegates.

Working sessions have taken place with the participation of Belgium and Hungary as countries belonging to the trio of Presidencies for this period.

From now on, the Spanish Presidency will use these reflections for the conclusions to be taken to the formal Council in March, in Brussels.

The agreed outcome will then be taken to the European Commission, to ensure that the Europe 2020 global strategy, successor of the Lisbon strategy for the last decade, includes employment as one of its priorities.

Source: eu2010.es

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