EU youth unemployment "summit" in Paris: "No new ideas"

                                        Another failed European Union "summit"                                             

Yesterday 24 European heads of state and government wined and dined at the Palais de l'Élysée. The formal reason for the gathering was to tackle youth unemployment across the EU, which now stands at 23.5%.

Reuters summarizes the "summit":

European leaders pledged on Tuesday to make fighting youth unemployment in the bloc a priority but came up with no new ideas to tackle a problem that risks fuelling social unrest and distrust of mainstream parties. --

"We must show that Europe is part of the solution, not the problem," Barroso said. "It's not Europe that created the problem - it is divergence in policies that created the problem."
 
PS

A look at the main headline of the European Commission's home page shows what Barroso's Commission is focusing on during this scandalous youth unemployment crisis:

Ambitious EU plan could slash use of plastic bags by 80%
The EU could radically reduce its use of disposable plastic carrier bags over the next 4 years, under plans put forward this week by the Commission.

Perhaps Barroso's secret plan is to offer Europe's unemployed youth jobs as official EU plastic bag inspectors?

The European Council's fight against youth unemployment is a joke

Against the background of a weak short-term economic outlook, youth unemployment has reached unprecedented levels in several Member States, with huge human and social costs. Urgent action must be taken. 
Today, the European Council agreed on a comprehensive approach to combat youth unemployment, building on the following concrete measures: speeding up and frontloading of the Youth Employment Initiative; speeding up implementation of the Youth Guarantee; increased youth mobility and involvement of the social partners

Conclusions of the European Council (27/28 June 2013)


EU "president" Herman Van Rompuy is pleased with the "productive" EU "summit", which agreed a program to fight youth unemployment in Europe. Van Rompuy and the other summiteers may be proud of their achievement, but they should be ashamed. The EU initiative is only a drop in the ocean, which will not make any real difference. For once, I can agree with much of this analysis published in the World Socialist Web Site:

At their summit Thursday in Brussels, the government heads of the European Union decided to provide six billion euros for unemployed youth. The measure is officially described as a “Call to Action on Youth Unemployment.” In fact, it is quite the opposite. It is a travesty and insult to the intelligence of young people and only underscores the fact that an entire generation has no future in a capitalist Europe. 

In the 27 member countries of the EU, one in four young people under 25 is officially counted as unemployed—a total of 5.6 million people. The real figure is even higher since the official statistics take into account only those who have been looking for a job within the past four weeks and who can take on a new a job within two weeks.

The six billion euros are to be spent over the years 2014 and 2015. This amounts to an average of 45 euros per month per unemployed person, i.e., a drop in the ocean.

Even prominent corporate and political figures conceded that this is a token measure. Thomas Mayer, chief economist at Deutsche Bank, called it “more a form of symbolic politics,” and Martin Schulz, president of the EU Parliament, said the money allocated was “not enough.”

According to the European Commission, about 4.5 trillion euros of public funds have been allocated to prop up the continent’s banking system since 2008. Now the same European governments are freeing up 0.13 percent of this sum for European youth. This ratio indicates the relative importance attached by the ruling elite to the youth of Europe as compared to the banks.

The six billion euros is not even new money. Rather, it is to be diverted from other expenditures in the existing budget.

Of course,  the World Socialist Web Site writer Peter Schwarz is wrong when he claims that "an entire generation has no future in a capitalist Europe". On the contrary, the huge youth unemployment is a direct consequence of the centrally planned policies of the Brussels politburo. In a truly free European market, without the euro straightjacket, we would not have a serious youth unemployment problem.

The economic failure of the European Union: Barroso blames member countries and citizens

"Prejudiced" European citizens do not understand the "problems", according to J.M. Barroso

The facts: 

• Over 26 million people are unemployed in the EU countries
• Eurozone unemployment rate is 12%, a record since the single currency was created in 1999
• Youth unemployment in Greece is 58%
• Youth unemployment in Spain is 56%
• The eurozone economy has contracted for five consecutive quarters in 2011-2012
• Forecasts for the first quarter of this year, to be released in May, are not expected to show any improvement

How does European Commission president José Manuel Barroso react to these dismal figures (which are a direct result of the EU's failed policies)?

Although faking some self-criticism, Barroso in reality blames the citizens for not understanding the "problems", due to "prejudices and reinforced stereotypes". And the other culprits are member state governments, who according to the former maoist "oversimplify debates":

"A policy to be successful not only has to be properly designed, it has to have the minimum of public support,” Barroso said. “We have not been able collectively to explain the problems.”

Addressing the lack of coherent discourse around the crisis, the EU executive chief slammed member states for over-simplifying debates, which led to prejudices and reinforced stereotypes, backfiring on the countries themselves, giving rise to nationalism and populism.

And how is Barroso going to solve the "problems"?

Surprise, surprise, by MORE integration!:

“More integration is simply indispensable for our economy, to shield us from international rough weather to face strong completion and maintain the trust of markets and investors”

Source

A real political leader gave a proper reply to this madness already in 1990:

"No. No. No."

"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.