Jobs Act gave youth a future says Renzi

(ANSA) - Florence, May 6 - The key success of the Jobs Act is that mortgage lending is up once more, Premier Matteo Renzi said in a speech to the State of the European Union conference on Friday. This means "two young people have been able to begin thinking of themselves as a nucleus that can create the future and not just wait for it to happen to them," he said of his landmark and much-contested labor reform law. "I think that in some parts of the continent, those who are unable to create jobs are losing elections. Demagoguery and populism find fertile ground wherever employment is lacking - there is no Europe if there is no work for the youngest generation". The EU's image is tarnished more by this lack of jobs than by external threats, Renzi added.