BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel is due in Paris next week for EU talks on tackling mass youth unemployment in the bloc, her spokesman said Friday. Merkel will be received at the Elysee presidential palace, Steffen Seibert told reporters, adding the meeting was a follow-up to a July summit in Berlin on helping Europe’s millions of jobless under 25-year-olds.

Labor Minister Ursula von der Leyen will accompany Merkel, he said, describing the Paris meeting as a “first stock-taking” of decisions from the initial summit and that action would continue.

Heads of state and government, EU chiefs as well as labour ministers from the 28-member EU pledged action on the problem of soaring youth unemployment in July when Merkel told reporters “we want to put ourselves under a bit of pressure.”