​Mariano Rajoy highlights 4.7% growth in youth employment according to latest Labour Force Survey

Lower House of Parliament, Madrid

In response to a question from the Member of Parliament for the Grupo Socialista [Socialist Group], Pedro Sánchez, about the situation of young people in Spain, the President of the Government said that "a trend shift has been achieved despite the impossible situation" in which we found ourselves in 2011. Besides recalling that 1,771,517 young people lost their jobs during the previous legislature, he also said it is not true that 500,000 have left Spain in recent years. According to the Spanish National Statistics Institute, this figure stands at precisely 24,638.

Mariano Rajoy also said that, "fortunately", the economy is growing in Spain today, jobs are being created and Spain is "the leading EU country in terms of growth": 440,000 people found a job in 2014 and 600,000 will do so in 2015. In other words, added the President of the Government, "we have already started to recover the jobs that were lost in Spain".

Useful vocational training capable of creating jobs

The Member of Parliament for the PNV [Basque Nationalist Party], Aitor Esteban, asked about the changes being made to Vocational Training. In this regard, the President of the Government explained that this reform aims to create vocational training that is "useful, improves the training received and enables more jobs to be created in Spain".

Pool MoncloaMariano Rajoy explained that the vocational training reform is "essential" because, in the future, Spain will have to compete with trained people and with innovation. He also stressed that the objectives for this legislature were economic growth and job creation, objectives that will also need to be maintained for the coming four years.

Furthermore, Mariano Rajoy explained that the reform will enable vocational training to be opened up to competition so as to ensure there are no monopolies but rather "assessments of quality, information, control and penalties in the case of fraud".

These changes, added the President of the Government, are being made "while fully respecting all the regional governments" given that "they in no way intend to take powers away from any of them". He stressed that the Government of Spain wishes to reach an understanding with the various political forces and this is reflected in the fact that the changes are being processed as a draft law.

The banking bailout has had positive effects

Carlos Martínez Gorriarán, a Member of Parliament for Unión, Progreso y Democracia (UPyD) [Union, Progress and Democracy], asked the President of the Government about the banking bailout. Mariano Rajoy recalled that, when his government came to power, "a substantial part of the Spanish financial system was bankrupt". The Government of Spain took the decision to request a loan from the European Union, in the same way as other countries such as the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and France had done.

Mariano Rajoy explained that 39 of the 100 billion euros made available to Spain by the EU have been made use of, with a grace period of 10 years and an interest rate below 1%.

Pool MoncloaThe President of the Government stressed that the effects of the bailout have been "positive". "We have regained confidence in the financial system both in and out of Spain; the stress tests performed by the ECB put us in a leading position in Europe; credit has returned to our country; the risk premium has fallen; we are financing ourselves at incredibly low prices, as quite clearly never seen before in our history; added to which people have their deposits and their jobs".

At present, added Mariano Rajoy, "the State is the majority shareholder of a major bank - Bankia". The Government of Spain has decided to privatise this entity but "we will wait until better conditions exist in the market so as to recover the highest possible amount of that which was borrowed".