The Milan conference is already the third high level EU meeting devoted to tackling unemployment issues. Last year, employment conferences were held in Berlin and Paris. Taking part in this conference are also European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, European Parliament President Martin Schulz, President François Hollande of France, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Prime Ministers of Latvia, Estonia, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Portugal, and Malta.
At the Milan conference, Dalia Grybauskaitė presented Lithuania's experience in increasing employment and addressing youth unemployment issues. Lithuania is among the leaders in the European Union in terms of fighting unemployment of young people. Youth unemployment has shrunk by even 16% since 2010.
"Millions of people across Europe are jobless, which is a social as well as economic security problem. But benefits and subsidies cannot replace reforms. We will help people only by taking resolute action. Lithuania during difficult times focused on painful, yet necessary reforms. Our economy is showing continuous growth, next year we will join the eurozone, and youth unemployment in our country is declining most rapidly compared to other EU member states," the President said.
When presenting Lithuania's experience and national actions the President underlined the need to promote entrepreneurship and pro-activeness of the young. The "first job initiative" successfully launched in Lithuania helped bring more than 100,000 young persons to work over two years. Legislative amendments initiated by the President will serve to facilitate apprenticeship and real job skills opportunities for young people.
Lithuania is implementing the Youth Guarantee Initiative for which it has been allocated over 300 million litas. This programme ensures that all young people will receive an offer of a job, apprenticeship or studies within four months of leaving formal education or becoming unemployed. Bridging the gap between the classroom and workplace is also needed.
To fight unemployment effectively it is necessary to reduce tax and administrative burden for business. Governments can help start-up businesses not only by reducing taxes; they can also extend their offer in free business advice, training, support in accessing new markets. It is also important to promote small and medium enterprises as they create about 70 percent of workplaces in Europe.
