G20: ‘It’s the jobs, stupid!’ After a fruitful meeting with the Americans for Financial Reform, I briefly met Richard Trumka, the newly elected President of AFL CIO - the largest federation of trade unions in North America - and delivered a speech at a meeting with the ITUC. Here is the message I conveyed to our American friends:The outcome of the upcoming G20 summit will be judged on what it can do to create jobs. Whether we take our cues from the OECD's warnings, from top mainstream economists, or simply from observation, the unfolding menace to our economies is one: the financial crisis has been transformed into a jobs crisis. This makes talk of an ill-thought "exit strategy" all the more dangerous. We must be honest: we are not confronted with a U-turn into growth simply because some journalists choose to talk about "green shoots". Unemployment remains alarmingly high. If we are to avert the prospect of seeing the number of unemployed climb even higher, we must remain firm. This is no time for p |
Wanted: an entry strategy into the labour market Last week, I attended the PES Social Europe Network – a group of prominent PES policy-makers chaired by my colleague and good friend Alejandro Cercas – for a discussion of what I think is one of the most serious and yet most sidelined issues of the day: unemployment (read the report of the meeting ).I decided to dedicate a blog post to this because the current European discussion about an exit strategy is extremely worrying. The unemployment crisis has just begun. Over 5 million young people are already unemployed. Economists warn that we risk losing an entire generation of people to poverty and unemployment, and they are not exaggerating. Overall, it is likely that by 2010 more than 30 million people will be unemployed. The surge in unemployment that we expect will not only increase social exclusion. It will jeopardise future growth prospects; it will endanger the sustainability of public finances through increased welfare payments; it will reduce the total level of demand, sendin |
Barroso programme: more business as usual José Manuel Barroso sent European Parliament political groups his five year programme last week in his bid to be re-elected Commission President for a second term. This is in the run-up to tomorrow’s hearings in the Parliament where he will try to convince MEPs that he’s the right person to lead Europe in these times of crisis. But on the evidence of his programme, Barroso has stumbled on the first hurdle. A close analysis shows that 95% of its statements and proposals are taken from old Commission initiatives. It is business as usual, with no European vision on how to tackle the massive challenges we’re facing. We’re facing a historic economic crisis: eight million people have already lost their jobs and 30 million Europeans could be unemployed by 2011. But Barroso thinks we can continue as before, with an outdated recovery plan and no new European initiatives. There’s no commitment to an ambitious, new strategy to fight mass unemployment for our citizens. There’s no visi |
President Obama with a clear message President Barack Obama is still strong and very convincing when he talks. He is sending a clear message as when I saw him during his inauguration in Washington. Yesterday, during Bill Clinton’s global initiative conference, his message was again very clear and firm. Nobody can do it alone. We must cooperate. And permit ourselves to create more jobs, to make it sustainable, to unite climate policy and smart green growth. That is why Europe must support the US president during the G20 here in Pittsburgh. When Obama talks about the necessity for sustainable growth and new jobs, we should make a clear new common commitment. We must support him from the European side. On behalf of the PES, I fully agree with him.That is why the European governments should abstain from pulling back their financial packages and stimulus. We do not need an exit strategy to be implemented now. The risk for further increase in unemployment would be alarming. What we need is an entry strategy for the labour mar |