José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, today urged EU leaders to use €82 billion in unspent structural funds from the EU’s 2007-13 financial period to pay for job creation programmes and help small businesses.

Barroso wants member states to agree to redirect the funds to address high youth unemployment and help companies struggling to obtain financing. He made the proposal at an informal European Council meeting today which was focusing on ways to spur jobs and growth as well as solving the eurozone’s debt crisis.

He said some of the money could be redirected into lending programmes for small businesses, and also to help pay for projects that would aid university and college graduates secure apprenticeships.

Barroso presented a special pilot scheme for Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain, the member states with the highest youth unemployment rates. He proposed the creation of “action teams” that would draw up plans, with the involvement of national trade unions, on how to tackle the problem with the use of EU funds.

The Commission president wants member states to draw up action plans by mid-April on how to use EU funds which have yet to be allocated to specific projects.

‘Give leadership’

Barroso urged the EU leaders “to give leadership” to the plan. “You will need to overcome bureaucratic resistance in your own administrations to make these changes,” he said.

Of the total funds available, €60bn comes from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) while the rest, €22bn, comes from the European Social Fund (ESF). Commission officials said that member states would have until the end of 2013 to draft, approve and implement new programmes to use the funds.

Spain has the largest amount of EU funds available for use. It has €10.7bn in uncommitted funds from the ESF and ERDF, followed by Italy, which has €8bn, and the Czech Republic with €7bn.

Commission officials said some member states that find themselves in financial difficulties, including Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Portugal and Ireland, could also benefit from lower co-financing rates to make use of the EU funds.

Rebecca Harms, a co-leader of the Greens in the European Parliament, gave a cautious welcome to the plan, but warned that the success of the proposal hinged on the ability of member states to find national funds needed to match EU funding.

“This isn’t very new [and] it needs co-financing. But some countries don’t have the necessary funds,” Harms said.