Why the Euro Will Cost Your Job!
Europe isn't working. Why? Because 20 million adults across the EU are idle and have little hope of ever finding jobs. The Eurozone has an 8.7 per cent unemployment rate, not far short of one in ten.
Spain
Spain has the European Union's highest jobless rate. The Spanish dole
queue has lengthened since the launch of the euro from 10.6 per cent in
2001 to 11.5 per cent last year.
Italy
Italy's predicted nine per cent unemployment total is almost DOUBLE Britain's.
European Commission experts forecast that the ailing country will hit
the grim dole total this year.
Austria
Austria's jobless total is growing fast. It is up from 4.9 percent in
2001 to 5.6 percent in 2002. And that figure is predicted to rise to 5.7
per cent this year.
Portugal
This nation traditionally has low unemployment, but it has gone up since
they joined the euro. An EC report says jobless jumped to 6.2 per cent
at the end of 2002 - up two per cent on the year before.
Germany
The country that fought hardest for the euro is now officially in recession
- with a jobless figure of 4.5 million. Germany, once the industrial powerhouse
of Europe, is on its knees with 8.9 per cent of its work force unemployed.
At lest 800 firms a day are going bust. Even the Holsten Brewery in Hamburg
has workers on short time.
And foreign investment plunged 90 per cent in a year as companies steer clear of a minefield of laws, tax regulations and ancillary costs that make German workers the most expensive in the world. The drastic decline in profits and the rising number of bankruptcies has caused the amount of local taxes collected by Germany's largest cities and towns to plummet. Three-quarters of them are now operating in the red.
But Germany cannot borrow its way out of trouble as the euro is not a national currency. The shocked German people are making do and mend. A shop in Hanover has set up to repair women's tights - business is booming.
France
Every month since the euro was launched, France has seen its jobless toll
rise. Thirty thousand were thrown on the dole in April in an economy experts
warn is plunging into recession. Unemployment now stands at 9.1 per cent
with almost 2.5 million out of work. Growth has collapsed over the last
6 months and figures reveal it could be slipping into reverse. Industrial
demand is at its lowest for ten years, with inflation higher than the
European average for the first time in 5 years. And France faces massive
fines from Brussels after its public spending deficit broke the Eurozone's
limit.
Exports have also been massacred by the current high
value of the euro and the European Central Bank's refusal to cut the zone's
interest rates. Phillipe Waechter, chief economist at Franc's Banques
Populaire Asset Management, said: "Without a cut in interest rates
to calm down the growth in the euro, the economic prospects look pretty
grim."
Trevor Kavanagh, Political Editor,
The Sun, 21st May 2003
Hain's Brass Neck
….Currently, the EU effectively "borrows" what powers it enjoys
from its member states - and is in consequence answerable to them. Under
M Giscard's proposals, our national powers will drive from, and be answerable
to, the European state. That has enormous and irrevocable implications
for our ability to run our own affairs.
The Draft constitution gives us a European President, a European foreign minister and what amounts to a European Justice Department. It formally enshrines the primacy of EU law over national law. In almost every area of public policy - among them agriculture, transport, welfare, health and employment - we will have the right to legislate only where the EU waives its primacy.
Still, let's take Mr Hain at his word. If the draft
constitution is no more than a consultative document, is it not reasonable
to expect that we will be consulted on it? Apparently not.
The Editor
Daily Telegraph, 20th May 2003
