Anthony Spota writes:  Leaders in Europe and around the world are hoping the worst of the economic and financial crisis is over and that 2014 will be a year of recovery.

However, when it comes to youth unemployment in the European Union (EU), there appears to be no light at the end of the tunnel, save for a few exceptions. Youth unemployment has been on a continuous rise since the beginning of the crisis five years ago and, according to (the European Commission’s Directorate providing statistical information), it has now reached an average of 23.5%.

More specifically, there has been an increase of the “NEETs,” young people who are not in employment, education or training.  As many as 14 million young Europeans fall into this category.

The problem has been particularly acute in the European “Southern belt” — Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Croatia — where roughly one in two young people are without a job.

Many young Europeans are underemployed, holding jobs they feel overqualified for or working under precarious contracts such as internships, which are often unpaid or grossly underpaid.

Apart from the alarming size of the phenomenon, it is clear that youth unemployment will have a long-term effect on a big segment of the EU population. This generation will also have a higher chance of suffering from unemployment and poverty later on, which could lead to higher rates of crime.

Furthermore, countries with the highest rates of youth unemployment suffer from a “brain drain,” in which educated youngsters leave the country to try and find work abroad. Not only are these countries losing a motivated workforce, but all the money invested in its education has also been wasted.

Within the context of its social policies and the promotion of the movement of workers and their full employment, the EU has supported youth employment since long before the outbreak of the crisis. The main instrument of this support is the European Social Fund (ESF) – a structural fund investing around 10% of the EU budget in creating more and better jobs within the European Union.

According to the European Commission, from 2007 to 2012, 20 million young people under 25 benefitted from the ESF through training or mentoring. Many member states use ESF to modernize education and strengthen vocational training.

Youth guarantee schemes create entitlements to certain measures for all parts of a population within a certain age group. The principal supportive measures of the initiative would consist of building up partnership-based approaches, early intervention and activation, and supportive measures for labor market integration

There is also an emphasis on creating focal points that will ensure coordination between all groups concerned and the public authority responsible for managing the initiative. Providing people outside the system with information is also essential, and increasing the use of Internet and social media will be promoted.

Many European countries have educational and societal systems in which students finish their tertiary studies after the age of 25. Part of the danger of trying to implement plans that worked in northern European countries in southern states such as Greece, Italy and Spain is that local considerations are not taken into account.

In Italy, for example, the average student finishes high school at age 19 and will usually graduate from higher education (first and second level) after the age of 25. For this reason, it would seem like a good idea to expand the application of the Youth Guarantee scheme to all people under the age of 30 automatically.