Balkan Youngsters Demand Action on Jobs

Young people from the Western Balkans see the high level of unemployment as one of the most important challenges the region faces.

Gathered on Friday in Durres, western Albania, for a regional conference organised by the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group in the European Parliament, they demanded more support from the European Union on creating jobs within Balkan countries and intensifying pressure on local officials to do so.

Natasa Celevska, a representative of the Youth Section of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, said the lack of jobs is forcing young Macedonians to leave for countries with stronger economies, such as Germany.

"High unemployment rates are a real problem and youngsters have started to look for them [jobs] elsewhere," she said.

According to 2016 statistics from the International Labour Organization, the youth unemployment rate topped 50 per cent in some Balkan states.

Bosnia-Hercegovina has the highest youth unemployment rate at a staggering 57.5 per cent, followed by Macedonia at 50.8 per cent and Serbia at 49.5 per cent. Albania's youth unemployment rate of 29.2 is still high when compared to countries like Germany, where seven per cent of young people are without jobs.

Amer Osmic from the Faculty of Political Sciences in the University of Sarajevo told the conference that the education system in the Western Balkan needs root and branch reform to prepare young people for the job market.

He advocated for a dual education system that would allow for vocational training.

"We should, without losing any time, implement the dual education system that is very common in European countries with a lower rate of unemployment and which is focused more on...