On 27 and 28 June, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat participated in the meeting of the European Council that discussed and agreed on measures to combat youth unemployment. These form part of a comprehensive approach to combat youth unemployment that build on a number of measures, namely: speeding up the implementation of the Youth Employment Initiative and the Youth Guarantee scheme; increased youth mobility and greater involvement of the social partners. The approach is contained in the European Commission's Communication entitled Working together for Europe's young people – A call to action on youth unemployment.

Youth unemployment has reached alarming levels in several member states and the European Council called for urgent action to combat a situation where 23.5% of Europeans under the age of 25 (approximately 7.5 million) across the EU are currently out of work. The Commission's proposals consist of a number of measures aimed at combating the situation. These include:

·     Supporting young people and implementing the Youth Guarantee through the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) over the 2014-2020 programming period. At the European Council meeting, EU leaders committed the member states to ensure that within four months of becoming unemployed or leaving formal education all young people up to the age of 25 receive a high-quality offer of a job, an apprenticeship or a traineeship.

·     Kick-starting the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI), agreed upon by the European Council in February, to provide financial support that is focused on the regions and individuals struggling most with youth unemployment and inactivity. In June, the EU leaders agreed that the €6bn earmarked for the initiative would be made available in 2014-2016 rather than over the entire seven-year period of the 2014-2010 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). They also undertook that the YEI would be fully operational from January 2014.

·     Relaunching and expanding the Youth Employment Action Teams with member states facing particularly high levels of youth unemployment and that are aimed at ensuring that EU structural funds are utilised in the best manner possible to support young people.

·     Reforming the European Job Mobility Portal (EURES) to reflect the realities of the labour market better and to strengthen the mobility of young persons by offering jobs and opportunities that combine work with learning. EURES currently provides access to over 1.4 million job vacancies and almost 31,000 registered employers across the EU. The European Council agreed to strengthen existing initiatives, such as Your first EURES Job and Erasmus +, the latter also fostering cross-border vocational training. EU leaders want Erasmus + to be operational from January 2014. Furthermore, member states were encouraged to use part of their allocations under the European Social Fund (ESF) to support cross-border mobility schemes. EU leaders called for the Quality Framework for Traineeships to be put into place in early 2014.

In the conclusions of the European Council, while welcoming the Framework of Actions on Youth Employment agreed by the social partners on 11 June, EU leaders stated that "the social partners need to be fully involved and actively engaged in these efforts". In fact, the Commission's Communication was the main item on the agenda of Meusac's Core Croup meeting held on 26 July. The Core Group brings together representatives of the government, the political parties, the social partners and civil society. When introducing the subject, the Minister for Social Dialogue, Consumer Affairs and Civil Liberties, Helena Dalli, described the Commission's proposals as practical and achievable, adding that they could have an immediate impact on the drive to combat youth unemployment.

In his presentation on the Communication, the chairperson of the Active Labour Market Policy Counselling and Action Committee in the Ministry for Education and Employment, Clyde Caruana, explained how through the Youth Guarantee, the national initiative of the social partners and the political parties, Jobs+, will in 2014 be targeting 350 young persons under 25. Moreover, the Ministry for Education and Employment will have €120m available under the ESF. The Employment and Training Corporation (ETC) will also be allocating greater resources to improve EURES services in Malta. Mr Caruana also spoke of the urgent need for the educational system in Malta to respond to the future needs of the labour market and that incentives are provided for businesses, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular, to employ more young workers.

Quoting from the remarks of European Council president Herman Van Rompuy after the first session of the European Council on 27 June, "Employment policies are mainly a responsibility for national governments, with the European Union supporting national efforts. Together we have more tools, we can offer more solutions."

Dr Xuereb is head of Meusac