Unemployment

An interview with Jean Lambert, MEP for the United Kingdom.

In Portugal, emigration worsens the problems caused by austerity. A recent study documents its dramatic consequences on the demography of the country. As a result of the current trend, the Portuguese population, currently estimated at 10.4 million people, could decrease to 7 million by 2061.

The turmoil the Italian political landscape has been traversing of late is particularly worrisome. Not so much for the political instability but more for the political blindness that it reveals and which risks destroying the fundamentals of the very idea of democracy itself. While the current government continues the politics of austerity imposed by the European Union, the reform of the political architecture is still missing.

The ongoing crisis, caused by excessive global debt, saw only financial institutions being protected. For life to come before debt we need to build an alternative to this out-of-control financial system.

The idea of degrowth has always been a strain Green thought, but what exactly would degrowth mean for our economy, society and relationship with the planet? Does degrowth provide the answer to the social and ecological crisis?

Now that Merkel has triumphed in the German elections, one of the opposition’s main aims – the establishment of a national minimum wage – is likely to miss the boat and be left behind. Prospects are bleak for the growing numbers of working poor.

5 years after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, and the beginning of the worst economic crisis in decades, the EU has not delivered on promises of strong regulation of the financial sector. A swift overhaul is needed.

It is more vital than ever to transform the porous structure of the EU into a stable, federal house. A key instrument for this is the budget of the EU, through which European problem-solving capacities can be enhanced.

What use is the EU’s “free movement of people” if it is a right that only the elite can avail of? And how ‘free’ is it if the economic crisis is forcing young people to leave their country in search of work?

While Poland presents itself to the outside world as a country untouched by the economic crisis, the reality is far different for an entire generation of Polish people. Rather than face up to the structural difficulties in the job market, the Government ignores the problem and remains committed to the doctrines of the neoliberal model.