EU – Baltic States, Labour-market, Latvia, Legislation, Markets and Companies

Murniece made the statement in addressing the Meeting of Chairpersons of the Committees on Employment and Social Affairs at Saeima today, which is one of the events of the Parliamentary Dimension of the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the EU.

Among the social challenges that Europe is currently facing, Murniece mentioned the need to promote youth employment and to reduce long-term unemployment, since nearly half of all the unemployed are jobless for an extended period of time. In this context, Murniece welcomed the European Commission's Youth Guarantee initiative, which is an investment in human capital that focuses on 15-24-year-olds and offers work placement, training or internship within four months of registering with the employment service. The Youth Guarantee initiative also supports programs aimed at other age groups.

Murniece also emphasized that joint efforts should be made to find new avenues for attaining the set social objectives, such as social entrepreneurship. Latvia is currently working on the legal framework for social entrepreneurship, and employers are increasingly taking into account the social dimension of the economy.

The Saeima speaker pointed out that the Latvian Presidency has defined an engaged Europe as one of its priorities; therefore, Latvia is working on creating an inclusive and sustainable labor market while developing long-term solutions for promoting employment.

In conclusion, Murniece declared that promotion of employment is a task that transcends national borders and should be addressed as a pan-European challenge.