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"Entrepreneurship and youth employment are at the core of the EPP values" reminded Lucinda Creighton, Irish Minister for European Affairs in her keynote address to EPP Group Members of the Committee of the Regions who met in Dublin today. "There's no other way than austerity to recover from the crisis. Ireland is a best practice on that" she added. The way the Irish Government, currently holding the EU Presidency is fighting its way through the economic crisis with remarkable resilience and in partnership with its regional and local partners led Members of the EPP Group to seek such inspiration. Welcoming the members and guests Michael Schneider, President of the EPP Group in the CoR recalled that entrepreneurship and skills and jobs are key components of the Europe 2020 Strategy, to which the EPP in the CoR has committed itself. "We need to foster a strong entrepreneurial environment across the continent in pursuit of boosting youth employment and innovation in regions across Europe" he stated, adding that Europe requires an adequate budget so that European citizens have seven years of investment policy ahead of them. This was also the message which was delivered to the Irish PM Enda Kenny when EPP-CoR members met with him ahead of his discussion on the EU long-term budget with EP President Schulz and Commission President Barroso. EPP-CoR Group Vice-President and Member of the Offally County Council Constance Hanniffywho hosted the meeting recalled that "youth unemployment can lead to huge frustrations of hopes towards the future. A political system without hope for young ones is making its way towards failure. Entrepreneurship can be the answer". Supporting her deliberations, Committee of the Regions President Ramon Luis Valcarcel Sisoadded that concrete actions must be taken: "It is our duty to support young entrepreneurs, reduce bureaucracy, create shortcuts for launching businesses, drive simple and centralized electronic processing, and develop smart incentives and financial instruments such as guarantee schemes or networks of private investors". The discussion was organised around the themes of youth education and employment and an entrepreneurial culture for sustainable jobs and competitiveness. Member of European Parliament Pablo Zalba suggested focusing on investment in talents, education and the removal of barriers, stating that "Access to funding must be easy and not differentiate from country to country. It is an unfair obstacle to create the truly internal market". On the other hand, Peter Jungen (Project Syndicate) argued that Europe needs at least 6 million new entrepreneurs to compete with emerging economies and the US in the near future, otherwise it risks being left behind and becoming more and more peripheral on the globalized world stage. Pointing to solutions, Frank Ryan (Enterprise Ireland) presented Ireland's successful practice of supporting start-ups in strategically important regions and remote ones, which have contributed to internal cohesion. Building on this case, Alessandro Fusacchia (Italian Ministry of Economic Development) also proposed that further integration was needed to so that not every single region has an independent start-up ecosystem. Cutting red tape, setting up friendly regulations and getting money through crowdfunding could be the recipe to relaunch SMEs in countries with critical economic situation. From the panel dedicated to youth employment and education, it was suggested by Juha-Pekka Nurvala (EPP Youth) that an entrepreneurial spirit should start during the study years and fostered throughout all the individual's education in order achieve a sustainable young labour market. Lidia Salvatore of Eurofound also proposed a new approach to tackle the problem: "we must start promoting youth entrepreneurship as a viable career path for young people". EPP Members concluded the Dublin Meeting with the adoption of a political declaration on the creation of a regional entrepreneurial and innovative environment for growth and jobs. DUBLIN DECLARATION