This is the key message delivered by Valeria Ronzitti, General Secretary of CEEP, at the meeting of the European Social Partners with the European Ministers of Employment and Social Security in Dublin today.

Linked to skills mismatches Ms Ronzitti also highlighted the importance of closer cooperation between education and training providers on the one hand and enterprises on the other. “As the representatives of both education and training providers and enterprises we have a specific role to play in this regard and we are currently working on a project establishing bridges between public services providers and the education sector”.

Addressing the alarming high levels of youth unemployment in many Member States, Ms Ronzitti underlined that “Member States and social partners at all levels have a shared responsibility to reverse this situation. For instance Members States have the responsibility to be coherent in their policies and give priority to growth-friendly expenditure such as investments in education instead of cutting such spending”.

With regard to the ongoing debate at European level on the social dimension of the EMU, including social dialogue, Valeria Ronzitti stated as a final remark that “at CEEP we are in favour of this debate because we are convinced that European economic and social integration should and will continue. But for this debate to be truly meaningful, social partners need to be involved.”

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For further information, please contact:

Priya Klinkenberg- tel. +32 (0) 2 229 21 40

CEEP gathers enterprises and organisations from across Europe, both public and private, at national, regional and local level, which are public employers or providers of services of general interest. CEEP members contribute to more than 26%

of EU GDP and employ 30% of the EU workforce; CEEP is one of the three general corss-industry European Social Partners.