Brussels, 25/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - “Few surprises” - the latest social and employment indicators remain in the red, as they have been for several years. This is the bitter observation made at the beginning of the latest edition of Benchmarking Working Europe, published jointly by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) on Monday 24 March.
As in previous editions, ETUI and the ETUC, in their new annual report, decode in detail the consequences in Europe of the 2008 financial and economic crisis. Such a step continues to be necessary, in their opinion, because the very notion of crisis cannot yet be dismissed in the analysis of the current situation. Indeed, Europe remains plunged in a vicious circle, “which is generating recession in some countries, as well as an increase in social inequality, in conjunction with the weakening of national solidarity mechanisms alongside the dismantling of national social models, traditions and practices of consultation and social dialogue”.
Is this vicious circle the consequence of the 2008 crisis or is it now fed just by the austerity policies? The answer to this question is not obvious. However, the change begun in 2010, in the space of barely a few months, from a policy of recovery to a policy of a drastic national budget consolidation tips the balance, according to the report, in favour of the second explanation - it is indeed austerity that is today leading to a sort of social recession in Europe and that prevents any sustainable recovery in growth.
According to the report, it is essentially the “creditors” - in the form of the famous troika (IMF, European Commission and ECB) - that are the main culprits, having placed the issue of debt and public deficit at the centre of the reflection in 2010 on how to respond to the crisis. However, this emergency policy is today translated into a permanent economic approach, which is borne out in the six pack rules or the European semester process. Nevertheless, ETUI and the ETUC recall in the introduction to their report that these policies, “adopted in Europe as from 2010, were actually subject to vehement controversy within the troika itself.” Consequently, ETUI and the ETUC conclude that, “at the level of theoretical debate, austerity was not the only option available”.
In seven chapters, the report therefore constructs its line of argument to reach the conclusion that Europe is at the halfway point of a lost decade and that the objectives of the EUROPE 2020 strategy are becoming null and void de facto. The facts stated in the report, which are often interconnected, are as follows for virtually all the member states: the policies of internal devaluation have been counterproductive; unemployment remains at record levels with a considerable drop in the quality of jobs available; the risk of poverty is constantly on the increase; labour law is deregulated in a way which sometimes runs counter to fundamental rights; there is downward pressure on salaries and for the decentralisation of collective negotiation; health and safety at work are becoming worse. (JK)