The European Union (EU) should do more to ensure young people in the region have access to jobs and training, an organization has claimed.

According to the Committee on Culture and Education of the European Parliament, extending the current student visa regime to youth workers would prove beneficial and provide mobile young people with access to social benefits.

The body of MEPs wants the EU to focus on issues such as youth mobility and volunteering, as well as to involve young people in the formulation of relevant policy through specific parliaments and councils.

In a report, the committee expresses concern "about the increasing numbers of young people who are unemployed, under-employed or who have no job security, especially in the current economic crisis" and emphasized the importance of a secure work position in the decision to start a family.

Meanwhile, more engineering jobs in Europe may be generated by a rise in EU industrial production of 1.8 per cent during January 2010 compared with the previous month.