Greek PM in Paris for summit addressing youth unemployment
Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras traveled to Paris on Tuesday to attend a conference of European leaders grappling with rising unemployment among the bloc’s young.
French President Francois Hollande will host counterparts including Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta in the French capital for the summit. They’ll unveil their latest battery of proposed measures after the jobless rate for those under the age of 25 climbed to 24.1 percent in September, matching a record.
“It really is a long haul,” Philip Shaw, chief economist at Investec in London, said in an interview with Bloomberg in which he called youth unemployment “pervasive” in Europe. “The most one can hope for is a set of constructive talks.”
Total unemployment across the 17-nation euro area is at 12.2 percent, also the highest since the currency zone was created.
In Greece, where the jobless rate of 27.6 percent is the highest in the euro area, European Union data show the youth unemployment rate to have been at 57.3 percent in July.
Samaras said on November 4 that youth unemployment is one of the biggest problems of southern Europe, and that participants in Tuesday’s summit are trying to “grab the bull by the horns.” Later this week he will attend an event in Greece backed by Nestle SA (NESN) for an initiative to offer more than 20,000 jobs to European workers aged under 30. [Bloomberg/Kathimerini]
