The European Union continues on its path to economic self-destruction: Agrees on "World´s most ambitious climate energy policy"

The grim reality for the European Union:

Now that German growth has stumbled, the euro area is on the verge of tipping into its third recession in six years. Its leaders have squandered two years of respite, granted by the pledge of Mario Draghi, the European Central Bank’s president, to do “whatever it takes” to save the single currency. The French and the Italians have dodged structural reforms, while the Germans have insisted on too much austerity. Prices are falling in eight European countries. The zone’s overall inflation rate has slipped to 0.3% and may well go into outright decline next year. A region that makes up almost a fifth of world output is marching towards stagnation and deflation.

Surely the leaders of the European Union should be more than worried. However, instead of taking the necessary measures to create growth, those leaders have chosen to reinforce the only really "succesful" EU project, the self-destruction of the European economy:

in the early hours of Friday, Mr Van Rompuy, wrote in a tweet: "Deal! At least 40% emissions cut by 2030. World's most ambitious, cost-effective, fair #EU2030 climate energy policy agreed ."

The EU Commissioner for Climate Action, Connie Hedegaard, said she was "very proud" that the leaders "were able to get their act together on this pressing climate challenge".

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: "We made a decisive step forward."

The EU is already on target to cut its CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020, compared with 1990 emission levels.

EU officials earlier said they wanted the EU to have an "ambitious position" in the run up to the UN climate change conference in Paris in December 2015.

They must be smiling in the US, China and India ...

Congratulations EU!: The man who led Finland to economic catastrophe, will now be in charge of jobs and growth!

The fact that former Finnish PM Jyrki Katainen will be in charge of jobs, growth, investment and competitiveness in Juncker´s new European Commission illustrates what is wrong with the European Union.

Judge yourselves whether the new Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness is the right man for his job after reading what Björn Wahlroos, former economics professor and probably the most influential Finnish business executive and investor right now, has to say about the government Katainen led:

Finland is in a “catastrophic” and “murderous” economic situation, facing a challenge greater than in the doldrums of 1991, estimates Björn Wahlroos.
The outspoken tycoon refers to a recent interview in which Anders Borg, the Swedish Minister of Finance, suggested that Finland is a cautionary example of how a country can destroy its competitiveness.
“We messed up a couple of labour market agreements and tried to rectify that with measures that further increased labour market rigidity. Costs crept up. The results are evident: jobs keep on disappearing,” states Wahlroos.

A traditional measure of the competitiveness of an economy is to examine its terms of trade – the value of its exports relative to that of its imports. “In Finland, it has deteriorated by 30 per cent, which is unusual. In the meantime, wages have increased by 40 per cent,” lists Wahlroos.
“Wages have crept up by 20 per cent over the past six years alone – during a period when the gross domestic product has failed to grow one bit. In fact, it has dropped. If you're asking whether this is a problem, the answer would be yes!”
Industries, in turn, have refrained from making major investments after the financial crisis swept over Finland in 2008. “A substantial amount of jobs has disappeared. And here's the regrettable part: more will disappear,” predicts Wahlroos. --

In effect, the Government of Stubb continues to carry out the government programme hammered out by the Government of Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen (NCP) in 2011. “It's founded on as bad a premise as possible. What's regrettable in terms of political history is that it was founded on a bad premise partly knowingly,” Wahlroos states.

PS

Katainen resigned as captain of the sinking Finnish ship in June in the knowledge that he would be rewarded for his failure with one of the exorbitantly well-paid EU top jobs. You´ll never walk alone, if you belong to the "club" ....

The Econonomist: "The euro may yet be doomed"

The Economist is spot on about the euro:

"If Germany, France and Italy cannot find a way to refloat Europe’s economy, the euro may yet be doomed." --

 "In recent weeks the countries of the euro zone have begun to take in water once again. Their collective GDP stagnated in the second quarter: Italy fell back into outright recession, French GDP was flat and even mighty Germany saw an unexpectedly large fall in output (see article). The third quarter looks pretty unhealthy, partly because the euro zone will suffer an extra drag from Western sanctions on Russia. Meanwhile, inflation has fallen perilously low, to around 0.4%, far below the near-2% target of the European Central Bank, raising fears that the zone as a whole could fall prey to entrenched deflation. German bond yields are hovering below 1%, another harbinger of falling prices. The euro zone stands (or wobbles) in stark contrast with America and Britain, whose economies are enjoying sustained growth."--

"(But) without a new push from the continent’s leaders, growth will not revive and deflation could take hold. Japan suffered a decade of lost growth in the 1990s, and is still struggling. But, unlike Japan, Europe is not a single cohesive country. If the currency union brings nothing but stagnation, joblessness and deflation, then some people will eventually vote to leave the euro. Thanks to Mr Draghi’s promise to put a floor under government debt, the market risk that financial pressures could trigger a break-up has receded. But the political risk that one or more countries decide to storm out of the single currency is rising all the time. The euro crisis has not gone away; it is just waiting over the horizon."

The euro in its present form is bound to fail. The sooner it happens, the better. Unfortunately the present European politicians will do their utmost in order to deny the failure, thus seriously delaying the much needed economic revival in Europe.

"The EU growth and jobs strategy is beginning to bear fruit": Eurozone unemployment rose to a record high in February

The European Union internet bookshop offers the publication "Jobs and growth in the EU" free of charge to anybody who is interested:

"Economic growth and job creation are vital to safeguarding our way of life and our standard of living. Faced with the challenges of globalisation, ageing populations and climate change, EU leaders have agreed a comprehensive strategy for creating jobs and growth, and sharing the benefits equitably across the EU and all groups in society. The EU growth and jobs strategy is beginning to bear fruit. It works to unlock the knowledge and innovation potential of the EU, to translate ideas into competitive business opportunities, to invest in people, and to create a greener economy in the interests of job creation now and tomorrow."

Like so much else coming from Brussels, this "roadmap to a sustainable tomorrow" is a document devoid of all meaning and substance. The reality of today's eurozone and EU is this: 

Unemployment rose to a record high of 12 percent in February in the Eurozone, according to the latest data released by the EU's official statistics agency.

The Belgium-based Eurostat said on Tuesday that some 19.07 million people in the 17-member currency bloc are looking for jobs, up by 1.01 percent from the same month last year.

"Such unacceptably high levels of unemployment are a tragedy for Europe,"said a spokeswoman for EU Employment Commissioner Laszlo Andor. "The EU has to mobilise all available resources to create jobs...young people in particular need help," she said.

The figures and a weak manufacturing sector report added to the gloom after data earlier this year had encouraged some hope the European economy might finally have touched bottom.

Analysts suggested Tuesday's reports pointed instead to worse to come, with the jobless queues likely to grow as the debt crisis continues to sap the economy.

Youth unemployment

The highest unemployment rates in February were found in Spain with 26.3 percent and neighbour Portugal, on 17.5 percent.

Greece was put at it 26.4 percent but this figure is for December, the latest available.

The lowest rates were 4.8 percent in Austria and 5.4 percent in Germany, Europe's biggest economy.

With youth unemployment a huge cause of concern, Eurostat said that the jobless rate for under-25s ran at 23.9 percent in the Eurozone and 23.5 percent in the EU.

Among the countries with the highest youth jobless levels, Spain was on 55.7 percent, followed by Portugal on 38.2 percent and Italy with 37.8 percent.

Greece was the highest with 58.4 percent but this was also for December.

Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight said the figures marked a "dismal landmark" at 12 percent -- already very close to the official EU 2013 forecast of 12.2 percent.

Fortunately more and more people are beginning see the reality behind the propaganda. The European "leaders" who have created this mess deserve to be thrown out of office as soon as possible. Their place is in a new European institution, hopefully soon to be created - the European Hall of Shame.