Actions to foster youth employment in the Member States. Declaration of the EU Ministers of Labour and the Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion agreed at the Conference on Youth Employment.

The widespread problem of youth unemployment in Europe requires urgent and determined action at European and national level. The European Council has just agreed that combating youth unemployment is a particular and immediate objective., Finding ways out of the jobs crisis requires us to identify innovative initiatives. Action that pursues rapid and sizable effects on hiring the young, while the more permanent effects of the stability-oriented macroeconomic policies and structural reforms in which many countries are embarked show fully their effects. This should be pursued together with reforms that promote and sustain growth, particularly restoring normal lending to the economy, and supporting SME financing, since they are critical to create jobs in many countries. Tackling this problem of European scale requires both national action and common action at European level. We have to decide on all the necessary arrangements to ensure that the Member states can profit, without delay, of an effective utilization of all available resources.