Croatia to receive more EC funds to create jobs for young people

Croatia will receive more funds from the European Commission (EC) to create jobs for its young people.

The move came after a EC decision to invest an additional 1.1 billion U.S. dollars into measures to tackle the large number of unemployed youth below 25 years old in member states of the European Union.

Croatia will receive a down payment of 21.7 million dollars for youth employment measures, compared with 754,000 dollars in the original schedule.

The enlargement of the down payment was due to Croatia's inability to pre-finance the measures until the full payment from the EC is received.

In total, Croatia will receive 75.4 million dollars from 2014 to 2020.

With the financial support, the Croatian government can finance youth employment measures for people up to 30 years old. Measures can only be applied to young people who are not studying nor undergoing any training.

Such measures include helping young people to gain working experience, obtain internships, and have access to further education and training, supporting start-up companies operated by young people and giving subsidies.

After the EC accepts Croatia's operative program for using European funds, the down payment will be paid automatically. Croatia will pre-finance its youth employment programs and receive the fund from the EU budget.

According to Eurostat, 44.8 percent of working-age Croatians aged below 26 years are unemployed in December 2014. The figure is the third highest after that of Greece and Spain. Endit