European Labor Market: Unemployment means young entrepreneurs leaving southern Europe - by Nigel Cassidy

Record unemployment has led to a rise in the number of young entrepreneurs leaving southern Europe and heading north to seek their fortunes.

Across the EU, nearly a quarter of people aged 18 to 25 have no job. In Greece and Spain more than half the people in that age group are jobless.

Youth unemployment will be the focus of attention at a two-day EU summit in Brussels.

Note EU-Digest: EU leaders gathering in Brussels today Thursday (27 June) for a two-day summit will again turn to measures aimed at helping young people to get jobs, as unemployment figures soar in southern countries.

The summit which kicked off at 4.30pm local time this afternoon with a meeting between leaders, trade unions and employers' associations, to hear what actions they are taking to boost youth employment.

EU leaders will also meet with the head of the European Investment Bank (EIB), Werner Hoyer, and look at ways to increase the bank's lending capacity after it received a €10 billion capital increase earlier this year.

Read more: BBC News - Unemployment means young entrepreneurs leaving southern Europe

EU summit: Angela Merkel calls for national budget veto

Angela Merkel

The German chancellor has called for the EU to be given the power to veto member states' budgets, hours before leaders meet in Brussels for a summit. 

Angela Merkel said the economics commissioner should be given clear rights to intervene when national budgets violated the bloc's rules.

The idea is likely to be strongly opposed by members concerned about any increase in the EU Commission's powers.

The summit is expected to focus on plans for a banking union.

Read more: BBC News - EU summit: Angela Merkel calls for national budget veto

Europe summit surprises with bold moves - by Don Melvin

When it comes to confronting the crisis threatening the euro’s very existence, nothing ever seems to come easy for European Union leaders—even a mutually sought agreement. That was demonstrated Friday at the E.U. summit in Brussels, where it took all-night haggling to approve growth stimulus measures that Italy and Spain had blocked until they obtained a softening of rules on bailouts that they’re likely to eventually seek. Only in the madness of the euro crisis can taking yourself hostage become an effective bargaining tool.

Yet, despite what were described as tense and grinding negotiations, decisions announced early Friday morning appear to represent important steps towards the survival of the embattled euro zone—and in both the short- and long-term context of the crisis. “(We took) a very ambitious decision that shows once again the commitment of the member states,” European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told reporters. “The irreversibility of the euro… will be recognized by all.”


At least once they wake up in the afternoon. Before the sleep-deprived leaders of the 17-member euro group broke their huddle at around 5 a.m. Friday, they adopted three significant concrete measures to confront the major factors in the crisis. The first involves allowing E.U. bailout funds to be paid directly to swamped euro-zone banks, rather than funneled through national governments. The old structure—designed to hold governments accountable for E.U. taxpayer rescue money—had the consequence of increasing the already crushing debt loads recipients were struggling to simultaneously finance and reduce. The change had been a demand Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy called vital in light of Spain’s pending $125 billion bank bailout request.

Note EU-Digest: we can only hope there will be better controls over the banks than before, otherwise this measure will be like putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank.

Read more: Europe summit surprises with bold moves - seattlepi.com