"The European Union prepares its entire arsenal to fight youth unemployment," writes the financial daily, as the French and German governments prepare to unveil a €60bn plan, known as the “New Deal for Europe”, on May 28.

The new scheme will mastermind a seven-year push to find jobs for people aged under 25, while Brussels will also ask European countries with high unemployment to go even further with their labour market reforms, continues the daily.

Meanwhile European Employment Commissioner Laszlo Andor prompted Spain on May 13 to adopt “a single open-ended contract” to fight youth unemployment, but Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy, refuses to introduce further labour market reforms.

The retirement age will no longer be set at 65 and in future will depend on the sustainability of the social security system under new plans to be discussed on May 2 at a meeting of Portuguese government ministers.

Pedro Passos Coelho’s government has pledged to the EU-IMF-ECB troika that it will cut €4.7bn from public spending between 2014 and 2016. It is expected to adopt a set of sweeping measures to reduce the deficit to 5.5 per cent of GDP this year, 4 per cent in 2014 and 2.5 per cent the following year.

The state is preparing to cut 20,000 civil service jobs over the next three years. Part of the overall public spending cuts in 2014 will include a €1.3bn cut from social security benefits, including pensions.

Youth unemployment is still rising in Belgium, according to the latest Eurostat figures, which show that 22.4 per cent of people under 25 do not have a job.

What is “eye-catching”, notes De Morgen, is that “the biggest rise is for the group with secondary and higher education level qualifications. Higher education is no longer a guarantee of a job.”

In Flanders, the average increase in the rate of unemployment is now 8 per cent, but among people holding university degrees, it is 12.8 per cent.

According to figures published on April 25 by the Spanish National Statistics Institute, there were 6.2 million unemployed (the equivalent of 27.19 percent of the workforce) in the country in the first quarter of 2013.

This is "a tragic record," reports an alarmed Cinco Días, which points out that in certain regions like Extremadura or Andalusia, the rate of unemployment has exceeded 35 per cent: "a national emergency demanding maximum attention."

Mariano Rajoy’s centre-right government will to present a package of measures on April 26, which includes: an increase in payroll taxes to boost state revenues, facilities to assist in the creation of companies, funding for SMEs, and a plan to modernise and reform public administration.

The number of jobless reached 3.224 million in March, the equivalent of 10.2 per cent of the workforce. Unemployment has increased by 11.5 per cent in a year exceeding the record set in 1997.

"Moreover, although it cannot admit it, the government does not really believe in the presidential cant about a reduction in unemployment this year," notes Le Figaro. In its editorial, the conservative daily calls for "major resources" to combat unemployment [...] even if that means going against accepted socialist doctrine": a drastic cut in labour costs, an end to the 35-hour week, and a major overhaul of unemployment benefits.

These are "measures […] that the most solid European countries implemented ages ago," points out the newspaper.

The rate of unemployment in the Netherlands exceeded official forecasts to reach 8.1 per cent of the active labour force in March. With 643,000 people out of work, it is now at a record 30-year high.

The figures have emerged from the latest survey by Statistics Netherlands, whose spokesperson described the rapid worsening of the country’s situation as “frightening”.

The number of people out of work has doubled every year since the onset of the economic crisis, with the 25-45 age group and certain sectors like construction and retailing being hit particularly hard. The daily notes that unemployment is expected to continue rising in 2014.

Germany could see the emergence of “flexi-pension generation,” headlines Die Tageszeitung in the wake of a government decision to increase pensions in 2014 (by 1 per cent in west German states, and 3 per cent in the east). In an extensive analysis of what future generations can expect from the pension system, the daily remarks —

The era where everyone retired at more or less the same age is over, not because people have suddenly become more liberated or individualistic, but because the labour market, which has become extremely flexible, will need some people and not others. Some will be able to continue working and may even be obliged, others will not.”

This system will generate inequality, argues TAZ, which sees two solutions —

One way would be to open the floodgates of the invalidity pension system, which is a common measure in Europe, but one which requires generous medical certificates. Alternatively, there is another more interesting option, in which each occupation has a specific retirement age. Roofers and scaffolders [...] could therefore benefit from full retirement at age 58, while those who choose to develop their talents in journalism and academia could work until age 72 if they wish.

A system with variable retirement ages would be difficult to implement, acknowledges the newspaper —

but current injustice in the social welfare and pension system is not acceptable either. The reforms of the last 15 years have destroyed the legal protection for pensions. And now is the time for change.

In 2012, the average retirement age in Germany was 63.3 years for women, and 63.8 years for men.

According to a report from the College of Property Registrars on the impact of mortgage default, the country’s banks filed for 65,000 foreclosures in 2012, of which 39,000 resulted in property owners losing their homes.

In a third of cases (14,200), repayment deals, allowing distressed borrowers to cease paying their mortgages once their properties had been repossessed, were negotiated with the banks.

The Andalusian regional government, a coalition between the Socialist Workers Party and the United Left, is taking control of properties belonging to banks for a period of three years if families living there are "at risk of exclusion" and threatened with eviction.

The decision, which will come into force on April 11, has come at a time when the new mortgage law is under discussion in the national parliament. The legislation imposes fines on banks that own unoccupied housing, which they refuse to rent out.

Notwithstanding the European Court of Justice ruling which condemned the abuse of evictions in Spain in March of this year, "legal opinion as to the constitutional compliance of the [Andalusian government’s decision] is divided,” notes the newspaper, because “it could undermine the right to private property."

The unemployment rate in the Eurozone reached a record 12 per cent of the workforce in February, bringing the number of men and women without jobs in the single currency area to more than 19m. More than 26m are unemployed in the wider EU.

The daily highlights the “wide rift” that has opened up between northern and southern Europe: while Austria (4.8 per cent unemployment), Germany (5.4 per cent) and Luxembourg (5.5 per cent) have very few jobless, Greece and Spain, both at more than 26 per cent, followed by Portugal at 17.5 per cent, are the worst affected. The situation is particularly bleak for young Europeans: more than half of under-25s in Spain and Greece are now jobless.

The figures show that “the survival of the euro is up to the Germans,” remarks TAZ. “But Germany has not assumed its responsibility. Instead of helping the countries of the south, it has forced them into poverty [...] by remaining impassive. Germans are satisfied as long as they themselves avoid the crisis.”

In the month of February, 18,400 additional people joined the ranks of the unemployed in France, bringing to 3,187,700 the number of people who are now without jobs.

Although the jobless figure has increased for 22 consecutive months, unemployment has yet to reach the record high hit in 1997, when there were 3,195,000 people out of work.

For the conservative daily, President François Hollande’s pledge that he will reverse the trend for growing unemployment by the end of the year is not credible, in view of the “sluggish growth” and “slim hopes of recovery in European partner countries.”

The European Court of Justice ruled on March 14 that harsh property repossession laws in Spain, which have led to 400,000 evictions since the beginning of the country’s deep recession and crisis, are “abusive” and violate Directive 93/13 on consumer protection.

Activists said the decision could lead judges to halt thousands of bank foreclosure proceedings and experts believe that illegally evicted people may be eligible for compensation.

Last November, the Barcelona daily launched a campaign to ask for an end to the evictions.

On its front page, Handelsblatt launches an outspoken attack on “The new SPD Agenda.” The daily is up in arms over the radical divergence between the economic policy currently advocated by Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Agenda 2010, established 10 years ago under SPD Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

For the business daily, the 2010 Agenda, which included far reaching reforms of Germany’s labour market and social security system, conducted between 2003 and 2005 by the SPD-Green coalition —

provided the basis for the growth of the German national economy [...] even though it divided not only the Social Democrats but also [German] society.

However, unlike Gerhard Schröder, the former minister of finance and current Social Democratic candidate for 2013 elections, Peer Steinbrück, has not succeeded in establishing himself “as an economic specialist,” remarks the newspaper, which further points out —

His plans, which consist of raising taxes on the rich and establishing stricter controls for banks [...] have annoyed the business community.

And although he has “seized on the anniversary of the Agenda” in his bid to woo companies, “this scepticism will remain,” concludes Handelsblatt.

Yesterday workers clashed with security forces in Barajas airport in Madrid as they began a series of three five-day strikes to protest against plans to restructure the Spanish airline.

The restructuring programme is expected to cut 3,800 jobs (19 per cent of the overall workforce), reduce wages, and axe services to a number of destinations.

Iberia has belonged to the holding company IAG since its merger with British Airways in 2011.

"Amazon angers its clients," runs a headline in German weekly Welt am Sonntag reporting on the barrage of attacks against the US online bookseller following a television broadcast revealing the inhumane conditions under which the firm's foreign workers on short-term contracts work. ARD television channel revealed that in the Hessen region, casual employees, including many from Spain or Portugal, were housed in over-populated holiday homes, far from their place of work and were paid less than advertised.

But what really fanned the flames of controversy is that –

Amazon recruits security guards close to the neo-Nazi movement to intimidate, harass and spy on the foreign workers.

Slate.fr as well as The Verge and EUobserver have also recently reported on this subject.

Last weekend, the German Minister of Labour, Ursula von der Leyen, called for more details on working conditions at Amazon and threatened that employment agencies supplying casual labour to the firm could find their licences "at risk," if the allegations are true.

According to German daily Südddeutsche Zeitung, Amazon cancelled a contract on February 18 with security firm Hensel European Security Services (Hess), which employed the guards shown in the television report.

A total of 1,500 ArecelorMittal employees from steel works in Liege (Belgium) and Florange (France) went to the European Parliament asking the EU to intervene to stop the closure of the sites and the 3,000 job losses that this will entail.

Access to parliament was barred by police, leading to clashes which left 14 injured, 12 of them in the ranks of the police.

Germany, despite easing immigration restrictions, is still having trouble attracting qualified labour for its industry and computer services sectors. Since August 2012, qualified workers can apply for a Blue Card, which fixes a minimum salary requirement to acquire working papers.

A total of 25,000 immigrants come to Germany to work each year from non-EU countries, which represents 0.02 per cent of the population, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Australia, Denmark and the United Kingdom attract five to 10 times more immigrants.

Five years after the start of the crisis, Europe is still “choked by recession”, warns The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

In the light of this situation, the federation wonders about the role it should play on a continent that has typically been a source for donations rather a destination for missions.

According to a Ministry of Labour forecast, 35 per cent of the estimated 390,000 children to be born this year in Poland will be raised by families which “barely make ends meet”, where per capita monthly income does not exceed 539 zlotys (€135).

As a result, 132,000 parents will claim social allowance for the poorest citizens. “It’s a myth that poverty and destitution affects only older people,” says an expert quoted by the daily, adding that “Poland is certainly not a country for young people.”

By the end of 2012, unemployment in Spain hit 26 per cent of the active population — 5.9m people. It’s the highest level in the EU and in Spain’s history, and the government says it will keep on rising in the coming months.

PM Mariano Rajoy has decided to keep a €450 unemployment payment to the long-term unemployed, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel urges new reforms to tackle high youth unemployment.

In 2012, more than 4,000 people from Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Ireland applied for residency permits in Sweden.

According to the Swedish immigration service, this figure has doubled since 2010 as a result of the European economic crisis.

The French carmaker has announced that it will not replace retiring workers so as to cut its workforce by 15% between now and 2016. The decision has come just six months after a restructuring plan at PSA Peugeot Citroën which involved the loss of 8,000 jobs, and at a time when sales of new French cars have slumped: falling by 19.4% in 2012, the worst decline since 1997.

The Polish parliament (Sejm) will next week debate three draft bills giving civil partnership rights to homosexuals couples. All three proposals, two of them presented by the Left Democratic Alliance and Palikot’s Movement and one by the ruling Civic Platform, do not grant gay couples in civil partnerships the same rights as married couples, and “there is no majority yet in the Sejm to pass any of the projects,” stresses the daily.

Petrol flows in one direction and drugs in the other. The German-Czech border is the centre of so much trafficking that the police and customs officials of both countries are keeping it under increasing surveillance.

"Untaxed petrol runs from Germany to the Czech Republic," notes Czech financial daily Hospodářské Noviny. Each day, the paper says, 40 to 50 tankers full of fuel leave Bavaria's Ingolstadt refinery. Half of these, the paper explains, are owned by a Russian firm and go to supply Czech service stations at unbeatable prices: €1.32 per litre compared with €1.42 per litre. The paper adds –

The police and customs officials are investigating tax evasion worth several tens of millions of euros. This amounts to 50 to 60 million litres per month, or one fifth of total Czech consumption. Czech distributers pay for the fuel correctly and pay the excise tax. But then the petrol transits for several days through a number of intermediaries, each of which is borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. One of the intermediaries is declared to the authorities as responsible for the tax payment but then declares bankruptcy [thus escaping from making the tax payment].

On another front, daily Mladá Fronta Dnes, says that "Germans stop Czech meth". The paper says that German police have toughened border controls and is keeping a close watch on the border area in order to fight against the trade in methamphetamines, an alternative to crack cocaine. The German police have noted a rise in methamphetamine sales in markets, known for their fashion knock-offs, run by the area's large Vietnamese community. The German police, the paper notes, –

Sometimes even intimidate honest drivers or stop all the cars leaving the markets. Berlin claims that German drug addicts are badly affected by Czech meth, and says the country's laws are too lax. Experts reject these arguments, saying that while possession of a small quantity is considered a minor offence, the production and distribution are indictable offences, as they are everywhere.

One European out of four – or nearly 120 million people – "risks social exclusion," reports Spanish daily La Vanguardia, following the publication of a Eurostat survey, the EU-SILC, examining data on income, social inclusion and living conditions. The study shows that social exclusion rose by 1 per cent in 2011 compared to a year earlier. This, says the paper, –

despite the fact reducing the number of people facing this threat is one of the EU's goals in its strategy for the decade.

Those countries with the highest percentage of risk of poverty or social exclusion are Bulgaria (49 per cent), followed by Romania and Latvia (40 per cent). Those with the lowest risk are the Czech Republic (15 per cent) and Sweden (16 per cent).

La Vanguardia notes that Spain, with 27 per cent of its population – or 12.4 million people – on the edge of exclusion, ranks three points above the European average.

The risk of poverty has continued to rise as a result of a crisis that strikes directly and broadly, at a large group of citizens who were until then, settled into the comfortable middle class.

On November 27 the Czech Constitutional Court partially repealed a law that punishes unemployed people who refuse to accept “compulsory” jobs. “The fundamental ruling abolishes community work that the unemployed must do without pay,” writes the daily Lidové noviny.

As a result, the government must now amend the law that forced anyone who had been unemployed for more than three months to accept or find work for 20 hours a week as a street sweeper or school groundskeeper, or risk having their unemployment benefits or social benefits cut off. The objective of the law, in force since January 2012, was to lower the number of long-term voluntarily unemployed and reduce moonlighting. In October, there were 496,762 unemployed, or 8.5 per cent of the active population. The newspaper says that in its view, the Constitutional Court

also compared the authorities' treatment of the unemployed to those made to do forced labour. People had to work without pay, often wearing the same coloured vests as convicts and people under other sanctions, which is an affront to their dignity. According to the judges, such treatment was inconceivable, considering that the same people had held down a job for years or decades. What's more, the tasks were chosen at the discretion of the authorities.

This repudiation by the Constitutional Court came as the implementation of another major reform, the first direct election of the President of the Republic, ran into controversy. It all leads Lidové noviny to describe the Czechs as a “nation of Constitutional do-it-yourselfers.”

As strikes brought transport services to a halt in several countries, there were major clashes between protesters and security forces in Spain, Portugal and Italy.

For El Pa�s, which led with the “hundreds of thousands” who “took to the streets to demand that [Prime Minister Mariano] Rajoy correct his policy”, yesterday’s demonstrations were "a pan-European protest […] against the diktat of austerity" –

La Repubblica notes that –

“Violence against austerity has come to Portugal”, laments P�blico, in the wake of the general strike which was marked by clashes between police and protesters near the parliament in Lisbon. Noting that 48 people were injured and 9 arrested, the daily wonders what it is that "motivates the protesters” –

“People don’t want the government to cut social benefits and civil service wages while raising taxes”, writes Gazeta Wyborcza. “However”, points out the Warsaw daily –

“Europe goes on strike while Germany looks on”, points out Tageszeitung, which ironically remarks that while “millions of workers have gone on strike to protest against the consequences of the European Union’s crisis management policy, their colleagues in the country that has actually benefited from the situation have sent a message of solidarity”.

Noting that the German unions have been criticised for failing to mobilise the country’s population, the alternative Berlin daily argues that Germans continue to believe that the crisis could be resolved by the proverbially thrifty “Swabian housewife” endorsed by Angela Merkel –

Nearly 20,000 people demonstrated, on Sunday, November 11, against the closure of the Ford factory in Genk, Belgium. Announced by the US automaker on October 25, the closure, scheduled for the end of 2013, could destroy close to 10,000 jobs. The demonstration's large turn-out "illustrates Europe's social angst," explains Belgian daily Libre Belgique.

The paper notes that up-coming negotiations between unions and management aimed at designing a social action plan for the plant –

... will take place in a context that is doubly fraught: on the national scene, the government of [Socialist Elio] Di Rupo hopes to wrap-up, this week, a budget with a strong whiff of austerity. [...] On the other hand, at the European level, unrest against austerity is rising...

As witness by the call for a European Day of Action and Solidarity on November 14 launched by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). "Forty organisations from 23 countries are participating," says Libre Belgique. These, the paper says –

... want to ask European leaders to act against soaring unemployment and to 'respond to the social angst of the citizens'. [...] This day will give rise to strike movements in Spain, Portugal, Greece and Italy, four countries hard hit by the crisis. Demonstrations are scheduled in Belgium [...], in France, in some Eastern countries such as Poland, Slovenia, and Romania as well as in front of the European Commission in Brussels.

This protest movement is evidence of the existence of a two-speed Europe, the paper says –

A recurring factor to be noted: the trade unions of Northern European countries are not taking part in the movement, at least not for the moment. This attitude is also evidence of the rift, which is becoming more and more clear, between the North of Europe which continues to argue for fiscal discipline and the countries of the South who fear 'suffocation' under the weight of austerity they must bear. [...] The protest movement will take place just 24 hours before the publication of Eurozone  growth figures. These are expected to confirm its entry into recession for the second time in three years.

El Periódico is campaigning to stop the evictions of families that can no longer keep up with their mortgage payments because of the crisis. “STOP the evictions”, leads the daily, referring to what it calls a “social drama.” Under Spanish law, if the borrower cannot repay his loan, the bank can seize the property. However, this does not release the buyer from his obligation to pay back the loan. Since the housing bubble burst in 2007, there have been nearly 400,000 evictions.

Believing that the “unjust mortgage law must change,” the Barcelona newspaper has decided to launch a petition calling for a softening of the conditions, such as a moratorium on the mortgage payments, a write-off of the loan once the housing has been seized, or the introduction of low-cost rents. These are measures provided for in the Code of Proper Practice for banks adopted by the Government of Mariano Rajoy back in March, but their application has been voluntary so far.

Charged with enforcement, Spanish judges “are not prepared to sit back with folded hands” regarding the law, which dates back to 1909, adds the newspaper: the General Council of the Spanish Judiciary has called for the law to be reformed owing to “dysfunctions” and the “social impact” of the evictions. Nor have political parties been left on the sidelines either. Conservatives (in power) and socialists (in opposition) also look favourably on a change in the law, notes El Periódico –

The change in attitude among institutions and parties is logical, given the twist this problem is taking [...] What is less comprehensible is the behaviour of banks, which should put an end this escalation in their own interests ... [...]  Many are demanding that the repossessions be turned into rentals for the indebted homeowners. This would help defuse a social drama and the banks would be collecting revenue, instead of taking over assets that only weigh down their balance sheets.

Ten influential Dutch public figures including politicians, writers, comedians, and trade unionists, have sounded the alert on the issue of rising youth unemployment in Europe.  In an appeal, published in De Volkskrant on August 16, the Stop European Youth Unemployment campaign by the FNV Jong trade union, they call on European leaders to organise a summit on the future of Europe’s young people as a matter of urgency –

While all eyes in Europe remain focused on the bailout plans for countries and banks, a social tragedy is unfolding, which at the very least, must be addressed with an urgent rescue plan. Youth unemployment has reached astronomical proportions. […] As a society, the price that we will pay for a lost generation will be a lot more than all of the billions spent to save any of the long list of bankrupt banks.

In Europe, 5.5 million under-25s are without a job, close to twice the number of unemployed in older age brackets. And this figure is increasing in all EU countries, including the Netherlands. Here, where the rate of unemployment is relatively low, we have 25 per cent more young unemployed than last year. The authors of the appeal notably draw attention to budgetary cuts in youth education services –

We cannot allow this human capital to be devalued and given up for lost. We must show solidarity in the fraternal drive to oppose budgetary austerity. As a latent intergenerational conflict this campaign has the potential to offer a fertile terrain for radicalisation in politics.

When Volkswagen chief Peter Hartz brought a blue CD-Rom into the German Chancellery on August 16, 2002, no one suspected that it contained the outline of the reform that would divide Germany for a decade; support its transformation from the “sick man of Europe” into an economic colossus; become the symbolic measure of Gerhard Schröder's mandate and mark his fall; or that it would finally become the most talked about reform of a Europe in crisis.

"Ten years of Hartz IV: work of the devil, or successful bail-out?” began the Frankfurter Rundschau, which attempts an impossible weighing-up of this four-part reform that was intended to bring flexibility to the labour market and that, “like a religion, split Germans into believers and unbelievers."

From an economic standpoint, increased pressure [on the unemployed] had a positive effect: Hartz IV, the merging of unemployment benefits and welfare at a lower level, and the proliferation of mini-jobs – up to a maximum of €400, these were exempt from social security deductions – saw even older men and women forced to take jobs well below their qualifications. The low-wage sector has expanded, paying wages no one can live on. [...] The Hartz reform has not only failed at all levels, but has contributed to the Americanisation of the German labour market and to a deeply divided society.

In 2005, when Hartz IV began, Germany had 4.86 million unemployed while in 2012, the forecast is 2.85 million. This change is attributed to three factors: global economic conditions, the low cost of production, and the labour market reform.

“Record unemployment in the EU: one in 10 without a job,” reads a headline in Der Standard in response to the grim figures published by the EU statistics bureau Eurostat on July 2. At the end of May, 17.6 million people, or 11.1% of the eurozone’s working population (an increase of 0.1% over April 2012) were without jobs. In the wider area of the European Union, there are 24.9 million unemployed, that is to say 2 million more than there were last year, remarks the Viennese daily, which nonetheless notes one positive point: Austria, where unemployment stands at 5.9%, has got off lightly.

“The problem is embarrassing,” remarks La Vanguardia –

Thousands of young Europeans are spending their Mondays in the sun [a reference to the title of the famous Spanish 2002 film about unemployed workers], crushed by the weight of a problem that is particularly severe in Southern European countries, like Spain and Greece, which share the worst reported level of youth unemployment – 52.1 % of under-25s without jobs. And Brussels is none too pleased.

In response to this situation, the Commission has urged national governments to launch academic programmes that are more in tune with the realities of the working world, reports the Barcelona daily, which further points out –

The case of Germany, whose rate of youth unemployment is the lowest in the eurozone at 7.9%, is significant. The country has an abundant and popular selection of “mini-jobs,” which are poorly paid with many wages less than 500 euros, but linked to training schemes in the same company.

Responding to a record 10% unemployment in the EU, the union “is launching a programme for more employment,” leads Süddeutsche Zeitung. Faced with harsh criticism for its austerity policies, the European Commission is taking on what is usually considered a domestic issue: social policy and the labour market. The Commissioner tasked with the challenge, László Andor, is to present this week an “employment package” that aims to create 17 million new jobs by 2020.

The main measures of this plan are: complete opening up of labour markets, both private and public, to all European citizens – including Romanians and Bulgarians – “appropriate minimum wages” that will let employees live off their labour, mutual recognition of degrees, and lower labour taxes.

The Commission hopes the most potential lies in the health sectors, services for the elderly, development of a sustainable climate-friendly economy, and in IT, though it remains to be seen whether states will allow interference in their social affairs. The plan will be discussed at the EU summit in June.

Unemployment in the European Union reached its highest level in 15 years in February. According to the EU statistics office, Eurostat, 10.2% of Europeans are unemployed or 24.55 million people. In the euro zone, the unemployment rate is 10.8% and concerns 17.13 million people.

Germany, with a rate of 5.7% of unemployed seems like a jobs paradise (only the Netherlands, Austria and Luxemburg have lower rates). As German daily Die Welt puts in in a headline, "Berlin is advertising to Europeans" to attract labour.

Some regions and some sectors in Germany are in a full employment situation and are urgently seeking German-speaking, foreign workers. A migration expert quoted by the paper, however, warns that expectations should not be too high. "Germany is not a first choice for skilled labour, it is in competition with other States," he says. This concerns for example English-speaking academics who are more likely to seek work in Great Britain. Berlin is not expecting a massive assault of Greek and Spanish unemployed, Die Welt concludes.

The European Commission is considering introducing mandatory quotas for female members on corporate boards after pleas for companies to voluntarily introduce such quotas themselves have produced no effect, reports Rzeczpospolita. “Only 24 European companies have responded to Brussels’ proposition from a year ago, which called for raising the representation of women on management boards to 30 percent by 2015 and 40 percent by 2020”, notes the Warsaw daily. This is why obligatory quotas are now being considered. The Rzeczpospolita leader adds –

Even if, like any top-down imposed regulation, they seem artificial, no one has yet come up with a more efficient way of boosting women’s representation at the top echelons of corporate power.

In Poland, women constitute only 11 percent of listed companies’ board members and their salaries are an average 15 percent lower than those of men in comparable positions. EU-wide, women earn 16.4 percent less than their male colleagues.

In the male bastion of Germany where the female quota became a talking point last week after 350 woman journalists petitioned for a better representation in leading positions on the national press, the Süddeutsche Zeitung believes that “the gentlemen ignored for too long the soft pressure of the ladies to put women in more executive positions” –

One can trust Viviane Reding [European Commissioner for Justice who initiated the project] to succeed. [...] Not by referring to discrimination or equality but by using the argument of the internal market: without a European quota it could happen that German companies, for example, could not participate in French or Spanish tenders because they don’t have enough female executives.

Leading with the front-page headline “Europe split in two by unemployment,” La Tribune reports on the growing gap between Southern and Northern Europe: “The rate in Germany has declined to a level not seen since 1991 while soaring to new high in Spain, where it is now almost 23%.

And Friday’s publication of European Commission estimates for the eurozone will likely confirm the extent of this disparity.” The Paris business daily continues:

This European dichotomy is first and foremost a reflection of the state of the continent’s economies. While some countries have sunk into recession (Greece, Portugal, Spain), others have succeeded in maintaining growth, albeit modest.

Citing reforms undertaken before the crisis as one of the reasons for the healthier economies in the North, The Financial Times remarks that changes to labour legislation in Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria and Germany-

... have helped make the workers of these countries internationally competitive – a factor which is sorely lacking in the eurozone periphery.

The City of London daily also highlights the role played by these countries’ strong tradition of exports in sectors that “benefited from the rapid recovery of emerging economies after the 2009 crisis.” Finally, specific employment policies, like the one in operation in Germany, which encourages partial unemployment as an alternative to layoffs, have also had an impact.

However, Tageszeitung takes issue with this argument, and notes that the reforms undertaken by Berlin have not created new jobs, but simply redistributed them to a larger number of workers – a process that has resulted in the creation of a new low-pay sector. Reporting that 8.4 million Germans are “under-employed,” TAZ  recalls that economic inequality in Germany has grown more rapidly than in other industrialised countries.

Finally, the newspaper notes that to celebrate the record of 41 million wage earners, the German government has spent 330,000 euros on a poster campaign “Danke Deutschland – Wirtschaft. Wachstum. Wohlstand.” [“Thank you Germany – Economy. Growth. Prosperity”].