Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said in Paris on Tuesday he doubted that the youth unemployment rate in Croatia was 52 per cent, saying it was certainly higher than the European average but not that high.
"Those statistics are not the most accurate. We will have to see exactly what 52 percent of youth unemployment up to the age of 25 or 29 means. The figure is unusual, to put it mildly," Milanovic told reporters after a conference on youth unemployment which drew the leaders of 24 of the European Union's 28 members and presidents of European institutions.
According to Eurostat figures from September, there are 5.6 million jobless young people under 25 in the EU28, which is equivalent to a 23.5% jobless rate. The situation is worst in Greece, where youth unemployment is 57.3%, followed by Spain (56.5%) and Croatia (52.8%).
Milanovic said there were no concrete solutions in dealing with this issue.
"Some states are very successful in it, yet they don't have a high percentage of the population with a college education. Austria is no better than Croatia in that respect, yet everyone is employed. The answer is not for everyone to go to university and study anything. It's about the structural policy of certain states and decades of work and we still have a lot of work ahead," he said.
Austria and Germany have the lowest youth unemployment rates, 8.7% and 7.7% respectively.
Around three billion euros will be earmarked to tackle this problem in the EU's 2014-20 budget period and an additional three billion through the European Social Fund. The European Commission has proposed spending the six billion in 2014 and 2015 to achieve a better effect.
According to Croatian forecasts, Croatia could be allocated 37 million euros in 2014 and an additional 29 million euros in 2015 for its employment programmes. If an agreement can be reached to spend the allocated funds in the first two years, Croatia will get additional funds.
Asked how dealing with the budget deficit would impact Croatian citizens, Milanovic said it would be tough and that it would take Croatia two to three years to return to the European standards.
"Reducing the deficit to below three per cent is easy in years of growth, but in years of stagnation, which has been present in Europe for years and which has exhausted everyone, that's a difficult goal," he said.
"To us, a growth of one per cent means HRK 3.5 billion more in generated value and 1.5% means five billion. If we had growth rates which we once considered normal, even small, the deficit problem would be smaller. The Croatian government has been carrying out reforms from day one, the IMF says so too. The question is how far it is smart to go in those reforms, how deep to go and how much to cut, how much to reduce entitlements, because that can have negative consequences for growth, as in Greece. We must be patient a little longer, which doesn't mean doing nothing."
Milanovic said Croatia had big costs from previous years, from the shipyards, the health sector and the railways to current costs.
"We must pay our debts. Next year we have HRK 2.5 billion more in interest rates due. That's a debt that someone incurred and any serious state should repay its debts. I know it's not something citizens want to hear but it is so. There will be no drama but it will be tough. It will take us another two to three years to return to the frameworks which are standard in Europe."
(Hina)
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