Jobs or courses for all school leavers

All school leavers will have to be guaranteed a job, education or training under an agreement to stimulate employment among youth across the EU.

Guarantee to be fulfilled within four months of leaving school

Each member state must submit a specific plan to the European Commission, by mid-April, on how they will achieve this target.

The Youth On The Move Pact was agreed by EU leaders at their summit on Monday. The member state job plans will form part of their individual national re­form programmes.

The guarantee must be fulfilled for each young person within four months of leaving school.

Under the pact, governments have to come to an agreement with social partners on increasing the number of apprenticeships and traineeships available and to use existing EU support schemes to facilitate youth mobility.

Measures will also be taken to refocus unspent EU funds on job creation and the boosting of small and medium sized enterprises – the backbone of economies.

Although details have to be refined during the next EU summit in March, the Commission did not waste any time in writing to eight specific member states with un­employment figures higher than the EU average, asking them to put in place the first phase of this plan.

Commission president José Manuel Barroso invited Spain, Greece, Slovakia, Lithuania, Italy, Portugal, Latvia and Ireland to nominate a person to act as a liaison with Brussels on developing their action plans.

Meanwhile, statistics issued by Eurostat yesterday showed unemployment hitting a new high of 10.4 per cent in the eurozone last December, as Malta continued to enjoy one of the lowest unemployment figures in the EU.

At 6.5 per cent, a similar level to previous months, Malta had the fifth lowest rate in the eurozone.