20/01/2009
New measures needed to stop million of job losses
PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen warned that European families will pay the price if Europe does not do more to fight the recession.
“The outlook is getting bleaker but where are the new efforts of the European Union? President Barack Obama is preparing his investment package, China and Russia are putting serious money into their economies, but is Europe doing enough? It looks like too little, too late and too uncoordinated.”
“Europe should be taking new and exceptional measures to stop the predicted loss of 3.5 million jobs this year. We owe it to the 3.5 million families who will suffer a loss of income. The European Union cannot just passively accept that unemployment will increase this year and next year.”
“I find it hard to accept Jean-Claude Juncker’s satisfied comments that European spending on the recession had gone far enough. He may not be worried but millions of Europeans are very worried. We are in a serious crisis and need to take serious action.”
“For those who are worried about public finances I say if we allow unemployment to increase public finances will get worse, but if we invest in jobs public finances will be better.”
“The PES has already proposed a more ambitious plan than the current over-hyped European Recovery Plan. We need to coordinate investments across Europe, and among all European governments, to create new jobs. And we need to do more at the European level. The EU did a reasonable job coordinating its response to the banking crisis, now it must show an even greater determination to safeguard the job prospects of ordinary citizens.”
While the conservative-led European Commission proposed a growth package of 0.75 percent of GDP for two years to the conservative-dominated European Council, PES party leaders meeting at the end of November in Madrid agreed a declaration “For an ambitious recovery plan to safeguard employment and prevent mass unemployment” that underlined the “value-added of joint and simultaneous action across Europe” and warned that “If we fail to act ambitiously now the recession will be prolonged and deeper, affecting the lives of people all over Europe”.
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
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