Briefings

Europe and the crisis

Confronted by the most serious post-war financial crisis, the European Union is dealing with the problem in a more or less co-ordinated way. Affected to different degrees, members states are seeking solutions that will enable them to restart growth without having to sacrifice completely their national models.

 
Outlook Progress is so last year
Europeans are increasingly pessimistic about their future, reports La Vanguardia. Undermined by the crisis, they no longer believe that living conditions on their continent will continue to improve.
Economic crisis Drop the European way of life
The belief that we can recover from the economic crisis without compromising our "European Way of Life" is quite simply a pipe dream argues, Polish columnist Marek Magierowski.
Economic crisis Angry Europe takes to the street
Amidst layoffs and gloomy predictions that Europe’s recovery from recession has stalled, the continent is faced with an unprecedented wave of industrial action. From Dublin to Athens protestors are resisting budget cuts and wage-reductions drives.
Greece Time for painful changes
While Europe's 27 member states meet in Brussels to attempt to save the Greek economy, workers have taken to the streets of Athens to protest against a package of austerity measures announced by the government. But in a country where tax fraud is rampant, people will have to accept painful changes if the state is to remain viable.
Eurozone Let Brussels take the helm
The EU 27 meeting in Brussels this Thursday could herald the birth of a sort of European “economic government”. This conclusion, long resisted by certain countries, now seems inescapable, what with Europe in the vice grip of an unprecedent financial crisis, reports the European press.
Stock Markets Euro, what a carve up!
Beleaguered on several fronts, the euro is facing an unprecedented ordeal. The European press inveighs against what it terms a hostile concerted attack and calls on the EU 27 to react.
Crisis PIGS trying to get wings
The four weakest countries in the eurozone - Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain, whose initials form the acronym PIGS – are making efforts to stabilise their economic situation. They may be going about it in different ways, but the European press reckons that they are all prey to the same uncertainties.
Economic crisis Tough love for the Greeks
Teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, Greece is proving to be a major headache for the European Union. Writing in La Stampa, economic analyst Franco Bruni argues that to save the credibility of the single currency, the Union needs to centralise policy, even to the point of over-riding national autonomy on economic issues.
Economic crisis Cheerio to the euro?
The financial hardships experienced by countries like Greece and Ireland raise the issue of their possible exclusion from the Eurozone. But opinions on the feasibility of such an outcome are mixed.
Auto Industry Fit for the scrapheap?
The impending shutdown of the Opel plant in Antwerp, Belgium, is a sign of the times in the ailing European auto sector. The press gazes beyond the current recession to mull the future of one of the continent’s core industries.
Portugal A generation in danger
In the United Kingdom, they call them "the lost generation" – 16 to 25-year-olds entering the working world against a backdrop of economic crisis and recession, who experience major difficulties finding and keeping jobs, even when they are well qualified. Público warns that the phenomenon is also taking hold in Portugal.
Finance Euro in hot water
Germans’ favourite countries for holidaymaking are going broke. And Europeans will have to foot the bill for the worst debtors, explains Die Zeit, lest they become the next dominoes to teeter and topple into financial chaos.
Ireland Land of spivs and speculators
Worst-afflicted of EU states by the global current crisis, Ireland of the Celtic Tiger years seems an all too distant memory. Rob Brown warns that Dublin’s slash and burn budgets that reduce public spending to keep international finance sweet could lead not just to economic, but also social, meltdown.
Banks Bailout cuts no ice with Reykjavik
Flying in the face of European demands for compensation, Iceland’s president Ólafur Grimsson has decided to hold a referendum on repayment of its banks’ foreign debts. And the European press is backing him up, arguing that taxpayers shouldn’t have to foot the bill for bankers’ blunders.
Greece Can the EU put it together again?
In Berlin and Brussels there is growing doubt over whether Greece can solve its debt problems without external help. If nothing is done, the country risks bankruptcy — with unforeseeable consequences for the European currency.
Greece After Dubai, is Athens next?
Faced with runaway public debt, rampant tax evasion and a gaping hole in the pension coffers, to name just a few national woes, Greece is on the brink of bankruptcy, says the European press. And it fears the repercussions for the euro and a potential domino effect on fiscally shaky countries.
European Union 27 ways out of the crisis
In Europe, signs of recovery have encouraged governments to implement further measures to facilitate a return to growth. However, as Le Monde reports, Europe's 27 member states are unable to adopt a coordinated approach to "exit the crisis," and remain as divided as they were when the recession began a year ago.
Employment The work-life imbalance
24 employees of France Télécom have committed suicide over the last 18 months. The deaths have been linked to the lack of job security, isolation within the company and increasing demands for employee flexibility. In French daily Le Monde two sociologists examine the story in the wider context of a society, where the meaning of work is undergoing significant change.
Economic growth Happiness is the new GDP
Twelve months into the economic crisis, a commission chaired by Economics Nobel Prize laureate Joseph Stiglitz is advocating the widespread use of a new economic performance indicator, which does a better job of measuring the well-being of populations. France wants Europe to take note of the commission's report.
Banks Where's the profit in a bonus clampdown?
Paris, Berlin and London have agreed to defend a plan to regulate bankers' pay at the next G20 summit. However, the European press takes the view that, although there is widespread popular support for the measure, the bonus clampdown will have little impact on the economy.
Air travel Low-cost pie in the sky
The collapse of SkyEurope is yet another proof of the fragility of low-cost airlines, which are often founded by enthusiastic but inexperienced entrepreneurs, and lack the sufficient size and capital to take on the competition, reports De Standaard.
Crisis Iceland squeezed like a lemon
Can Iceland and Latvia pay the foreign debts run up by a fairly small number of their population? The European Union and International Monetary Fund have told them to pay the debts with public money by raising taxes, slashing public spending and obliging citizens to deplete their savings. But a public backlash in these countries may force a compromise with their creditor nations, writes American economist Michael Hudson in the Financial Times.
Financial Crisis The recession is over-really?
In the second quarter, GDP grew by 0.3% on both sides of the Rhine. But the European press warns that it is too early to speak of an economic recovery, because the economies of most EU countries are still in decline. In the United Kingdom, an increase in youth unemployment is a particular cause for concern.
Trade Shipping industry drowning in financial woes
The global economic crisis is wreaking havoc on shipping: prices, along with demand, have collapsed and ports are filling up with fleets of empty freighters. The crisis has fueled cut-throat competition and not all companies will survive. Hamburg, with a quarter of the world's shipping activity, is particularly feeling the pinch.
Central and Eastern Europe Lean years are back
The financial crisis in Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic states, which until recently were posting record growth rates, has forced governments to slash budgets, starting with public service salaries — and cabinet ministers are leading the way.
Ireland-Iceland Two islands in the same boat
Iceland has just voted to apply for EU membership, but as enlargement is contingent on ratification of the Lisbon treaty, Iceland's fate is in Ireland's hands this October 2 as it goes to the polls for a second time to vote on the troubled text. Both islands have much in common, argues Le Monde, while their approach to Europe differs somewhat.
PROSTITUTION Czechs turn off the red light
Brothels on the Czech border are disappearing. Their customers, mostly Germans and Austrians also hard hit by the recession, are not coming round any more, writes MF DNES. But there is another reason for the slump: EU enlargement, with sex workers of Romanian or Bulgarian origin now able to travel freely throughout Europe.
Economic Crisis Forgetting Spain
At 35.4%, the jobless rate for young adults in Spain is one of the highest in the EU. Three out of ten Spaniards under the age of 25 are out of work. Many of them leave the country to try their luck abroad.
Globalization G8 needs a gee up
Haphazard organization, inconsistent agenda, the Italian PM’s derelict leadership: the G8 now getting under way in L'Aquila, Italy, is the object of widespread and acerbic criticism. “The summit is no longer representative of the current economic scene,” objects Brazilian president Lula in an interview with Le Monde. More generally, the European press wonders whether the G8 still serves any purpose at all.
Welfare state Scandinavia's lovely and unaffordable model
European member states are seeking solutions to soften the impact of the prolonged economic crisis. Sweden, whose much-admired social model is the envy of many countries, has the return to prosperity a priority for its presidency of the Union. But Le Soir reports that Sweden's example may not be easy to follow.
EU presidency Sweden's PM goes cool on climate change
Stockholm aimed to lead the way in making post-Kyoto a priority during its presidency at the head of the Union. But the economic crisis has put paid to such ambitious plans and expectations have been considerebly lowered, writes Anita Kratz.
Crisis Latvia on the brink
For a long time the country with the highest growth in the EU, Latvia finds itself staring into a financial abyss. Seeking to economise its way out of the crisis by slashing public spending, it may even have to devalue its currency.
Economics Stop shooting Europe in the foot
Since the beginning of the crisis, national governments have ignored and short-circuited recommendations emanating from Brussels on economic issues. The union and the single currency, however, have saved certain member states from bankruptcy. Europe would be in better shape, argues El País, if governments acted in a less unilateral manner.
Energy Oil, a North Sea hostage
How can we explain the fact that, in the middle of a global recession, and a corresponding slump in oil demand, that the price of a barrel of the black stuff continues to climb? The answer lies near the port of Rotterdam where, out at sea, fully loaded supertankers must wait until oil barons have decided that the time is ripe for selling.
Employment Spain warms to German model
Since the beginning of the global economic slowdown, unemployment in Spain has shot up to 17%. The Spanish government could do well to look to Germany, argues El País, where the jobless total is less dramatic.
Crisis Finance ministers perplexed in the extreme
While the EU is bent on cleansing the financial markets of gamblers and toxic assets and taming the banking sector, London, Dublin and parts of Eastern Europe are fighting for free markets.
Politics Europe is right-wing but...
Most governments in EU member states are from the right, but implement Keynesian inspired economic policies. Political forces in the EU must transcend differences and agree on a means to face up to the crisis.
LUXEMBOURG Hanging in the bank balance
An attack on banking secrecy launched from Berlin and Paris is forcing Luxembourg to rethink its policies. In the run-up to the European and general elections of June 7th, the people of the Grand Duchy are wondering how the prospect of change will affect their lives.
Immigration Romania's coming home
Spain’s Romanian immigrants have been badly affected by the economic crisis. The governments of Madrid and Bucharest are considering measures to help finance their return home to Romania, where labour is in short supply.
 
 
 

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