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PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen slammed the EU for abandoning its ‘Jobs Summit’ - due tomorrow and replaced by a low profile ‘troika’ with the social partners - despite this week’s forecast that unemployment will reach almost 27 million next year.

Rasmussen said “More than one in ten European workers will be paid to do nothing next year, but still there are no proposals from the European Commission or the Presidency to do any more to tackle unemployment. The message from this non-summit is clear: Europeans will just have to accept that 27 million of us will not have a job and not have a proper income. But the PES has another message for Europeans: we will never accept millions unemployed.”

“The lack of credit is forcing viable companies to lay off staff. The recession is destroying jobs that would otherwise be perfectly sustainable. The crisis is undermining Europe’s long-term future because it is wasting the talents of skilled people in jobs that are needed in the long run. European employment is in freefall and there is no pilot in Europe’s cockpit. The Czech Presidency has collapsed and the European Commission is under orders from its conservative leaders not to do anything else.”

“The PES has presented time after time its plan to create new jobs but the answer from the EU’s conservative leaders is always the same. We put forward our first plan at the end of November and a revised plan in March but we are told that Europe had done enough.”

“Europe needs a new stimulus to create jobs, fresh actions to safeguard jobs that should have a long-term future, more support for the unemployed and new initiatives to assist those at risk of poverty and social exclusion. Europe should take a lead in coordinating national policies to tackle the crisis and strengthening European measures such as by speeding up the use of structural funds and enhancing EIB support for small businesses.”

“I am so angry that European conservatives have spent more time discussing who will be President of the European Commission and the European Parliament than discussing what can be done to bring down unemployment across Europe. While Obama was elected on a message of hope, Barroso’s plotting to be reappointed while employment collapses sends a message of fatalism and complacency.”

For the PES recovery plan adopted last November click here

For the updated PES recovery plan adopted in March click here



FOR MORE INFORMATION
Julian Scola, Communications Advisor - Media & Campaigns
Party of European Socialists, Rue du Trône, 98, B-1050 Brussels
Mobile +32 486 117 394
julian.scola@pes.org