News

Wednesday, March 13, Vilnius - Tomorrow, March 14, President Dalia Grybauskaitė is leaving for Brussels to attend a European Council meeting. The heads of state or government of the EU member states will discuss the implementation and impact of economic growth measures designed to restore faster Europe's competitiveness and use better the potential of the European single market. The European Council will also discuss the EU's relations with its strategic partners as well as the current state and perspectives of the EU-Russia relationship.

According to the President, although the economy in the EU and Lithuania is gradually reviving it is necessary to implement more effectively and rapidly the measures agreed by the member states. This year, all EU countries are obliged to place special focus on five elements enabling economic growth: responsible financial policy, providing business with more favorable borrowing conditions, promoting competitiveness, tackling effectively unemployment problems, and modernizing public administration.

EU leaders will pay special attention to youth unemployment, reviewing the results of the pilot initiative applied in eight member states, including Lithuania, to help reduce youth unemployment. The rules of implementing a new initiative to promote youth employment will be introduced. The initiative may be joined by the states where youth unemployment rate is above 25 percent. It is planned to allocate €6bn for implementation purposes during 2014-2020. Today, in the EU more than 5.7 million people under the age of 25 are jobless, while in Lithuania at the beginning of 2013 the youth unemployment rate was 25.7 percent.

Press Service of the President