7. Welcomes the Commission’s measures to combat youth unemployment which should, alongside the EU’s Youth Employment Initiative and, especially, the Youth Guarantee and in line with the EU 2020 Strategy, seek to put forward solutions to encourage the creation of decent, high-quality and sustainable jobs and equal opportunities for young people, promoting social inclusion, reducing job insecurity and the risk of poverty, giving young people a sense of dignity and an independent life and fighting the brain drain; –considers that such measures should also encourage and strengthen existing mobility programmes and better recognition of skills and qualifications within the EU, and promote increased cross-border and inter-regional cooperation whi ...[+++]le limiting existing administrative obstacles and removing the current barriers for apprenticeships, traineeships and internships to better combat geographical mismatches between supply and demand of jobs as part of a roadmap for the future of a more economically, socially and territorially cohesive economic and monetary union; calls for the Member States and regional and local authorities to quickly implement the measures drawn up under the Youth Guarantee Scheme, and to promote exchanges of successful models that have resulted in positive trends in terms of reducing youth unemployment, in particular among the NEETS group; notes, however, that funding to fight youth unemployment is inadequate, and stresses that the proposed EUR 6 billion funding for the 2014-2020 EU Youth Employment Initiative is not sufficient to have any significant impact on the situation of young people.

As part of an integrated approach, Member States should, as a matter of priority, in the area of employment: · provide tailored job search assistance and employment services; · support transitional public work schemes combined with education as well as social enterprises employing Roma or providing them with specific services; · support a first work experience and on-the-job training; · eliminate the barriers, including discrimination, to (re)enter the labour market, especially for women; · provide stronger support for self-employment and entrepreneurship.

67. Calls upon the Commission to seek instruments by means of which to eliminate the complex obstacles which can prevent workers from opting to work abroad, such as difficulty in finding work for one's partner or spouse, high relocation costs, language barriers, the gender pay gap and the risk of losing tax advantages or no longer being able to contribute to national pension, health insurance or unemployment insurance schemes; stresses the importance of lifelong learning, with particular reference to the importance of language learning, which is essential in order to meet the changing demands of the labour market;

They are often deficient in one or more respects, ranging from employment and professional training, housing, child care facilities, schooling, social integration etc.

17. re-examine and, where appropriate, remove the obstacles, in particular tax obstacles, to investment in human resources and possibly provide for tax or other incentives for the development of in-house training; they will also examine new regulations and review the existing regulatory framework to make sure they will contribute to reducing barriers to employment and helping the labour market adapt to structural change in the economy.

It also means paying more attention to removing barriers to obtaining and retaining employment such as inflexibility in job requirements or legal restrictions concerning e.g. linguistic competencies or nationality. [55] Discrimination at the workplace and racist behaviour are also major barriers which must be removed.