At last - something positive for combating youth unemployment. Things are beginning to become a little clearer. In two days' time, the labour and finance ministers from four EU countries - Germany, Spain, France and Italy - will meet in Rome. This will result in something substantial and operational in the fight against youth unemployment. Last week in this column (bulletin No 10861), emphasis was placed on the agreement for helping young Spaniards find work in the German labour market. Now, the circle widens further.
Germany's Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Ursula von der Leyen set out her intentions and hopes to the Italian press. She said that, in her country, one million jobs are vacant and 33,000 places are still available for vocational training. Germany needs qualified immigration that it is seeking from within the EU, where freedom of movement is a right.
In Germany, employers are seeking young people and, elsewhere, many young people are seeking employment. The two must be brought together. Language, however, can be a barrier and, Mrs von der Leyen points out, her Ministry has invested €140 million to provide young Europeans with German language courses. It even covers travel costs. Also, last but not least, training courses are remunerated. On the other hand, Mrs von der Leyen does not agree that such spending should be excluded from calculation of the public debt as, she points out, it is essential to consolidate public expenditure in order to restore investor confidence, attract foreign investment, and to be competitive globally.
This brief summary highlights Mrs von der Leyen's personality and her projects and, above all, it draws attention to an example of cooperation between member states, instead of the banal mutual accusations between the different political movements.
Turkey: let's be done with pointless talk. A certain amount of coherence is required when reacting to the events in Turkey. One cannot condemn the attitude taken by Erdogan while, at the same time, supporting Turkey's accession to the EU. For years now, most of the Turkish population has continued to vote for the Muslim party, AKP, under Erdogan's leadership, growing in popularity at each election, and everything points to this happening again next year. The town of Istanbul is no exception: the last time, in 2011, AKP won 64.7% of the votes. And the new constitution, which will do away with the secular nature of the Turkish Republic, will soon be adopted. Criteria to be met for becoming a member of the EU are becoming steadily more and more remote.
The only reasonable stance to be taken by the EU is therefore to give up the fiction fantasy of Turkish accession and to negotiate cooperation agreements (see this column in bulletin No10859), while leaving to one side the sporadic lessons of democracy that have neither effect nor significance. Turkey is geographically so close to Europe, economic relations with the EU are so strong, and the problems to be resolved are so numerous that the European institutions, including Parliament, and also Catherine Ashton, should put rhetoric and illusion to one side and look reality full in the face.
Latvia: disputed accession? The EU's decision in favour of Latvia's forthcoming entry into the eurozone circumvented, as is only natural, any reference to the report on this subject by the European Central Bank, which is far from supportive of the move. The ECB's reticence concerned the out-sized nature of the banking system, the excessive share of deposits by non-residents (mainly Russian), earlier bank failures underwritten by the state and the weaknesses of the Latvian economy.
To this must be added the people's reticence. Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis had rejected national and foreign criticism in advance, pointing out that: - the euro crisis is in reality the crisis of certain eurozone countries and not a currency crisis; - his country suffered from the crisis (strong contraction of GDP) although it was not part of the eurozone; - in the country's banking activity, 80% of loans and 50% of deposits are already in euro; - joining the eurozone will bring interest rates down and attract investment (as seen in Estonia); - 70% of trade is with the eurozone and the cost of monetary conversion will be eliminated. The prime minister considers, moreover, that the cost of solidarity must be accepted as his country has already benefitted from it.
I shall quite simply point out that, in the past, the ECB expressed considerable reticence about Greece's entry into the eurozone. It was not listened to and we know what the result was. What more is there to say? I really don't know. All I have done is set out the elements gathered in my capacity as a journalist.
(FR/transl.jl)