Germany to create 5,000 jobs a year for young Spaniards

Germany has agreed to create 5,000 jobs a year for young Spanish workers as part of efforts to reduce youth unemployment in Spain, which hit 57 percent at the end of March.

A memorandum of understanding in this area was signed Tuesday in Madrid by Spanish Labor Minister Fátima Báñez and her German counterpart Ursula von der Leyen. It includes work combined with professional training and stable posts for qualified workers.

Báñez welcomed Germany’s “commitment” toward helping young Spaniards, adding that the accord would provide “many opportunities for many young Spanish people which today, because of the crisis they do not have in Spain, and which, however, they can have in other European Union countries on a temporary basis.”

The accord calls for the interchange of workers and cooperation in the area of labor affairs. There are currently 43,548 Spaniards affiliated with the German Social Security system, and 37,797 Germans in the Spanish system.

Both countries also agreed to work together on initiatives at the EU level to reduce youth unemployment. “This cooperation between Spain and Germany will very soon show itself in additional joint measures that will make a better life for our young people possible,” the two countries said in a statement

Von der Leyden acknowledged the reforms that Spain has undertaken, which she indicated would take time in bearing fruit. “Germany was the sick man of Europe ten years ago, with a very high unemployment rate [and, therefore,] knows what measures work,” she said.