EU Plans Microcredit Line to Tackle Youth Unemployment

The unemployment rate for those under the age of 25 in the European Union reached 21.4% in December 2009, according to statistics released by Eurostat, the EU's statistics office. Spain, the country currently holding the EU's rotating presidency, has been particularly hard hit by the global economic crisis. Unemployment for under-25-years-old Spaniards is at 44.5%.

Spanish Employment Minister Celestino Corbacho said that the EU was working on a plan to provide microloans to young people. The suggested program will involve a fund of EUR100 million (US$139 million) for unemployed youth or the long-term unemployed. The microcredit program will target people who tend to have difficulties getting loans from banks and evaluate potential loan recipients based on social rather than financial criteria.

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