Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Regional Development Mladjan Dinkic said today that the world economic crisis caused an increase in unemployment in Serbia, specifying that it rose from 14.7% in October 2008 to the current 17.4%.

At the promotion of the EU programme of support for employment in Serbia, Dinkic said that it has become increasingly harder for people to find jobs, noting that the employees who retired have not been replaced with a new workforce.

Highlighting that unemployment can only be solved through active measures, the Minister said that the EU’s twinning projects “Support to the Development of the National Employment Policy” and “Modernisation of the National Employment Service” were initiated in order to achieve this solution..

Experts from Germany are attempting to help their Serbian colleagues through these projects to solve the unemployment issue.

He said the project is worth €3 million in total, adding that it is being implemented in cooperation with the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the Federal Employment Agency.

Head of the European Commission delegation to Serbia Vincent Degert said that the unemployment situation in Serbia has been better than in some EU countries despite the crisis, which can be partly explained by an improved employment policy in Serbia.

German Ambassador to Serbia Wolfram Maas said that Serbia has a much better employment policy than many countries in the region, adding that everyday small steps are what is leading Serbia into the EU.