German chancellor Angela Merkel says the 3.6 million or so young unemployed people in the eurozone should be ready to move for work.
She has long been criticised in eurozone countries like Spain and Greece where unemployment is at record levels.
Mrs Merkel said those country's level of joblessness represented a "huge crisis", but she also resolutely defended the policy of tight controls on spending.
When unemployment among the young had soared in East Germany, "many young people... only had jobs because they moved to the south", she said.
There would have to be more "mobility", she argued.
"I think it's unfair that it is the young people especially who have to pay the bill for something they didn't do," she said.
"But there's no way around it. We have to manufacture products or offer services in Europe that we can sell."