Noel Grima in Brussels

Patrice was 55 and had been without a job for nine years. But he was desperate to get a job.

One day he turned up at a technology company at the very early hour of 8.30am, even before the company opened for business.

He knew nothing about technology and his CV would have probably ruled him out of consideration for the job.

But the owner, a young entrepreneur who owned the start-up company, decided to consider this job offer.

Patrice's expertise lay in book-keeping and the entrepreneur, who had no accounts clerk or book-keeper, had been forced to wake up at 3am to cope with the paperwork and the accounts.

At first sight, however, he had no budget to employ a book-keeper. Unless ... unless he had a second look at the tax incentives and other Belgian government incentives that, roped all together, made the employment of Patrice feasible. So he offered Patrice a job ... and has never looked back. Patrice joined with huge motivation, proved easy to train and took on other jobs in the company apart from book-keeping.

Today, four years later, Patrice is the mainstay of the company, which has meanwhile continued to grow. He now does HR in the company and every Friday he presents the owner with a full, detailed, cash flow report which the owner has come to see as absolutely vital.

The story of Patrice was the main exhibit in a visit which a group of journalists from all over Europe, in Brussels to get informed about the Commission's plans for a rejuvenated Long Term Unemployed focus, organised by the European Journalism Centre, paid to Actiris, in the Brussels suburb of Schaerbeek.

The area is far from the area usually known by journalists as the European Quarter. It is populated mostly by migrants and non-Belgians, eking out a livelihood in poverty and neglect.

Actiris is not a government department and, on the other hand, it is not a private sector venture. It is an independent body co-owned by the municipalities. It aims to bring together partners from the employers to local agencies and above all to attract the unemployed so as to help them find a job.

However, it is not all as presented. One manager admitted that when unemployment benefits run out after 24 months, 70% of those taking the benefits just disappear. They call it the "Sherwoodisation", a term taken from the Robin Hood stories where the people would take to the forest and hide there.

This is not because of lack of effort by Actiris. A look at the posters at the door shows courses for hairdressers, and others promoting fun sessions. Just as at our ETC there are lists of job offers plus help in drawing up CVs. Job seekers can search for jobs on the many computers around or they can ask the staff to help them.

Many of the job-seekers are under-qualified for the jobs on offer, especially if they are migrants from a different culture. Extended joblessness causes deep psychological damage in that people's self-esteem dwindles and they may end up exiting from the job-market itself. Social assistance cannot provide for the money lost out in wages and consequently poverty may breed illness and further despair.

During the ECJ seminar, the participants also heard three persons giving their own country's ways of tackling LTU. Of these, the most interesting was Matthias Borscheid from the Northside Partnership in Ireland. Its website says: "Northside Partnership works to improve the opportunities for people and communities in north east Dublin to bring about positive changes in their own lives and in the life of their community. We offer a range of programmes and services to support individuals, local organisations, groups and communities in the areas where we work."

Launched in 1991, Northside Partnership has a catchment area of 133,000 and a staff of 70. It offers a whole range of programmes and service supports, from education to employment to enterprise, youth, children and family, health, local development and social enterprise.

It offers a career guidance service which engages some 500 chats a week, drug rehabilitation, and placement of job-seekers with local organisations, but it also offers courses which lead to self-employed jobs, such as taxi drivers and butchers.

The seminar showed how a mix of legislation, incentives, one-stop-shop systems, an in-depth assessment of the job-seeker, and continuity of help by as much as possible the same official can help bring down the too high levels of LTUs.

Even without some dramatic new initiative by the EU there is much to be gained if only the member states listen from each other, identify the best practices and iron out the wrinkles.