Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico will pay a one-day visit to France on Tuesday (12 November) to attend the second international conference on youth employment in Paris, said the Government Office press department on Monday.
During the conference Fico will meet with French President Francois Hollande, Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel, and President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy. The conference will focus on issues related to youth employment, particularly on improving education of young people in accordance with needs of the labour market, but also on creating jobs with an emphasis on strengthening entrepreneurship among young people. The statistics on unemployment in Europe today are somewhat alarming, with countries like Spain, Greece and Croatia exceeding 50 percent unemployment for under-25 year olds, and others like Slovakia, Italy and Portugal over 35 percent. For Europe as a whole the rate at the end of 2012 was 23.5 percent. “The conference attendees will also discuss measures and EU instruments to increase employment, including the EU structural funds and instruments of the European Investment Bank,” according to a statement from Government Office.
