Italians protest against EU job policies
11 Oct HMV
Thousands of protesters in the Italian city of Milan have
demonstrated outside the venue of the European employment summit against
European Union's job policies.
The demonstrators held the rally on Wednesday after marching through
the city, demanding an end to government austerity policies and calling
for reforms to encourage investment.Maurizio Landini, the general
secretary of the Italian metalworkers’ union, FIOM, said EU leaders are
responsible for the high unemployment, as their policies applied in
recent years “have caused 25 million unemployed people in Europe.”
Landini added that in order to change the situation in Europe,
Brussels should amend “those policies, to overcome austerity, the fiscal
compact, and budget balancing, to restart investments and to build a
real European welfare.”
The protest was staged outside the venue of the EU meeting, in which
European leaders were to discuss measures to increase economic growth
and create more jobs in a bid to tackle the region’s high unemployment
rate. Italy and France seek a slower pace in spending cuts and favour an
increase in EU investment to help growth, while Germany backs austerity.
According to the latest figures, the bloc’s jobless rate stands at 11.5
percent.
The unemployment rate is even worse among those aged between 15 and
24, as 23.3 percent are without work.
Europe is struggling with an economic crisis that erupted in early
2008. Budget cuts aimed at controlling deficits have only worsened the
unemployment, slashing thousands of public sector jobs.
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