Youth Guarantee, energy isolation feature in Muscat’s first Council

The European Council wants to see no member state remaining 'isolated' from the European mainland without an interconnection to the European energy market, the 27-member bloc said today in its conclusions of a meeting in Brussels.

Europe needs investment in modern energy infrastructure and the challenge of high energy prices which hamper competitiveness needs to be tackled, the Council said today, in what was Maltese prime minister Joseph Muscat's first meeting since being elected to power in the 2013 elections last week.

In May, energy will be part of the Council's thematic discussions on sectoral and structural aspects that are key to economic growth and European competitiveness. Such discussions will also feed into a debate next year on the Europe 2020 Strategy and the review of progress towards its headline targets.

While work on the energy interconnector with Sicily is underway and should be completed by 2014-2015, Muscat plans to use just 20% of this cable in an energy plan that will include new 200MW power plant fuelled by natural gas, and an LNG terminal.

European leaders today also agreed to boost growth, but gave little suggestion that the EU's austerity-centered policies would change.

The traditional spring EU summit saw member states calling for education and training systems that could give young people the right skills, highlighting the "youth guarantee" as a way of ensuring all young people under the age of 25 receive a good quality offer of employment, continued education, apprenticeship or traineeship within four months of becoming unemployed or leaving formal education.

The Council also called for an increase in the female participation in the workforce, reducing long-term unemployment and ensuring full participation of older workers.

However, the EU leaders agreed that there could be no abandonment of the tough fiscal policies implemented since the start of the Eurozone crisis. Council president Herman Van Rompuy warned the leaders that "growth and jobs were not things that government can buy" while lauding measures taken by member states to reform their economies were "paying off".

The European council will close 2013 with a summit on defence in December. The Council insists that it will also look at ways to develop a more integrated, innovative and competitive European defence technological and industrial base.