On December 5, the European Commission proposed a package of measures to help deal with youth unemployment. However, concerns persist about the effectiveness of the package. Slovakia has one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the EU. It serves as an example of a country where half-hearted measures have failed in the absence of a proper active labour market strategy to channel the young into meaningful jobs.

Central to the Commission’s pro­posal is the Youth Guarantee: a pledge underpinned by policy measures to provide employment, continued education or training for people younger than 25 within four months of leaving formal education or becoming unemployed. It is up to the member states to choose the exact form of implementing this in practice. The financing framework is yet to be agreed upon, but will likely come at the Ministers’ Council on February 28. It is expected that the funding, coming from the European Social Fund, will be relatively generous. The sum proposed for the next 7-year financial framework is 6 billion euro.

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