The President of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), Ramón Luis Valcárcel Siso, highlighted during a conference held in Dublin that it is extremely important to involve local and regional authorities in delivering the new "Youth Guarantee" scheme to answer to the youth unemployment challenge. He also pointed out that cities and regions are key to creating workforce that meets needs of labour market.

Ramón Luis Valcárcel Siso, President of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) stressed that programmes must focus on offering the next generation the right skills to meet the needs of the growth industries, such as the "Digital" (ICT) sector. He stated in a conference held in Dublin that EU funds must be far better targeted to match the needs of Europe's key growth sectors in order to tackle rising levels of unemployment and create jobs.

With regard to the new "Youth Guarantee" recently put in place by the Council, President Valcárcel stressed the importance of engaging local and regional authorities in its implementation as most of the competences in education and training are at found at that level. This scheme offers assurance that no young person will be left without employment, training or education for more than four months.

Mercedes Bresso, the Committee of the Regions' First Vice-President who participated also in the same conference, underlined the importance of EU policy as being a driver for growth. She added that enterprises must be able to create new vacancies so that those losing their jobs today, and the younger generation of Europeans looking for employment in the future, can truly benefit from European policies and assistance provided by local and regional employment services.