With skyrocketing unemployment, participants and social media commentators grill MEPs Phil Bennion and Inês Zuber for their vision of a more stable job market.

Hangout: seeking an exit to unemployment

Hello, and welcome to EuroparlTV's  latest Google Hangout

from the European Parliament  in Brussels.

What are we talking about today?  Unemployment.

Things are tough here in Europe.  26 million of us are out of work.

We have programmes and EU initiatives,  but are they working?

What more can we do  to turn things around?

Joining me are Portuguese MEP  from the United Left, Inês Cristina Zuber,

and Liberal British MEP, Phil Bennion.  Hello, and welcome to both of you.

For you watching, you can join the debate  via the hashtag #EPHangout

and on the Parliament's Google+ page  or on Facebook or Twitter.

OK, guys, we'll launch into the first  question. I'll give you a case study.

I'm a lawyer. I've been out of work  for maybe two or three years.

Obviously I've studied and worked  very hard.

But I can't find a job.  I go to countless interviews.

My savings are running dry.  I don't know what to do.

Do I move to another country using the  various programmes we have in the EU?

In fact, beginning in the next year  we will have the EU Youth Guarantee.

That is the mechanism that we hope will  help people up to the age of 30 years old.

It's a mechanism  that the Member States could use

don't remain for more than four months  without doing anything,

without being in either education or a job,  or something like this.

It's a practical way to finance  and to create jobs.

The issue and question that I raise is:  what kind of jobs will be created?

Will it just be apprenticeships  or traineeships,

or something safer for the future  of young people? That's a problem.

Of course, another problem is that we don't  have so much funding for this mechanism.

We have just six billion euros  for the next seven years.

she's saying that I can qualify as a youth,  but I'm telling you I'm 32. Then what?

If you're 32, that's a different question.

The Youth Guarantee goes up to 30,  or it probably will go up to 30.

This has been the Parliament's position.

But Inês has pointed out that  it's only a small budget, six billion.

I think we can't expect the EU  to come up with a bigger budget

because the EU budget in itself  is very small.

So this has to be largely  a Member State issue.

I would say to you that as a qualified lawyer

you're in a much better position than  most unemployed young people out there,

who have a deficit  in terms of their qualifications.

You're well-qualified. One thing you could  already be doing is voluntary work.

In the UK we have  the Citizens Advice Bureau

where young lawyers will do some work  helping out with people's problems.

It gets them work experience  and it gets them into the system.

This is the type of thing  that people have to do.

So if you've been unemployed for a while,  do whatever you can is the advice.

Let's now take a question  from one of our participants.

Herlinde from the Social Platform,  good morning.

Thank you for having us  at this Google Hangout.

At the moment, Europe is talking a lot  about job creation.

Because a job is no longer  a guarantee of a decent income.

In some of Europe's  most developed economies,

people are working for  as little as 55 cents per hour.

On the other hand, we see an increase  of fixed-term contracts, mini-jobs,

zero-hour contracts, voluntary and part-time  work, and flexible working patterns.

that the quality of jobs and employment  is guaranteed in Europe?

We'll get the MEPs to answer  your question. So coming to you first.

There are about five or six questions there.  -Yes, quite a few.

Where minimum wages are concerned,  it remains a Member State competence.

We in the UK have a minimum wage.  It's £6.30 or about 7.50 euros an hour.

It's been highly effective. A minimum wage  has to be on a national level -

you can't have the same  in Greece as in Finland.

It would mean that nobody  would get a job in Greece.

So this must be for Member States.  But if you raise the minimum wage too high,

You have to understand that we're  in competition with China, India,

with places in the world  where people will work for less.

So we have to concentrate...  -But that's not really an excuse.

No, we can't compete on a race to the  bottom. We have to compete on quality.

Herlinde also talked about  zero-hour contracts.

They are a bit of a grey area.  -They are a grey area.

At the moment in the UK  we're looking at how to legislate

to stop the abuse of zero-hour contracts.

But for some older workers with specialist  skills, they're exactly what they want.

So banning them is not right,  but controlling them is.

But as far as flexible labour markets  are concerned,

they're good, they create more  opportunity than they destroy.

So we shouldn't answer this  by trying to protect the labour market,

because that only protects the incumbent.

but those who don't can never find one  because employers won't take people on.

The participant was saying that,  even if they do have these skills,

the problem is they fall into these contracts  where they're not guaranteed a safe job.

You can't guarantee a safe job.  It can't be done.

That's true. Today we have...  It's not just a question of qualifications.

For example, in Portugal we have  a lot of very well-qualified people,

like people with PhDs  who are teaching in public universities

and they have contracts of five months  plus five months,

because they don't need to be paid  during the summer or at Christmas.

The universities don't want to pay  subsidies for vacations, etc.

This is not a question of qualifications,

it's a question of whether or not  you are protected by labour laws.