Pope slams youth unemployment in EU

Pope Francis has censured the high unemployment rate among young people in Europe, saying the ‘throwaway culture’ has discarded a generation of European youth.

“Today we are living in unjust international system in which ‘King Money’ is at the center,” the pontiff said in an interview aired on the TN TV channel in Argentina on Wednesday.

“It is a throwaway culture that discards young people as well as its older people. In some European countries, without mentioning names, there is youth unemployment of 40 percent and higher,” Pope stated.

He also said that a generation of young people lacks the dignity that is brought by work.

European leaders have vowed to reverse the rising unemployment for young people in the European Union. They have not announced new programs but expressed confidence that current plans would improve the joblessness for the under 25 over the next two years.

Around six million people under the age of 25 are unemployed in the European Union, while about sixty percent of young people are out of job in Spain and Greece.

“A people that cares neither for its youth nor for its older people has no future,” Pope said, adding, “Young people take society into the future, while the older generation gives society its memory, its wisdom.”

Europe has promised 24 billion euros between 2013 and 2015 to contain joblessness among young people.

During a July summit in Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel described youth joblessness as “perhaps the most pressing problem facing Europe.”

Europe is struggling with an economic crisis that erupted in early 2008, leaving millions unemployed and in financial distress.