LOST GENERATION

The financial crisis in the EU has been going on for six years, revealing more weaknesses in this artificially created giant structure. Before the deep disease of Greece was cured, other troubles began, so to speak, associated with the financial and moral aspects of the problem in Cyprus. According to predictions, a few more EU countries are "queuing up to face the crisis". And, of course, the tighter the spiral of the crisis, the more it affects the lives of residents of the continent.

In particular, unemployment, which is a constant companion of any economic crisis, has reached a record high in the EU. According to a report by the International Labour Organ-ization (ILO), currently 26.3 million residents of Europe have no jobs, which is 10 million more than in 2008. The average situation on the European labour market is worse today than before the crisis. This trend is occurring in 22 of the 27 EU countries. The employment rate in comparison with the pre-crisis period has not deteriorated in only five of the EU countries - Germany, Hungary, Austria, Luxembourg and Malta.

According to the report, the average unemployment rate in the EU is 10.9 per cent, which is 4.1 percentage points above the pre-crisis level. One fact attracts particular attention: the number of unemployed in the euro area is growing faster than in other countries within the union, but with their own national currencies. Unemployment in the eurozone reached a record 12 per cent in February 2013. It is even higher in the so-called problem countries. But if in Portugal the number of those who lost their jobs is 17.5 per cent, in countries such as Greece and Spain, the figure has overstepped 26 per cent.

As always in such cases, it is especially hard for the younger generation. The crisis in the EU has been going on for years, and new groups of young people, who have not even started their careers yet, are joining the ranks of the unemployed. The unemployment figures published by the European statistical agency Eurostat clearly show that the position of young people in some EU countries is critical. For example, according to Eurostat, in Greece and Spain every second young person is unemployed (respectively 57.6 and 55.6 per cent). In Italy, the figure is 36.6 per cent, and only in one country of the EU - Germany, unemployment among young people has not increased (only 8 per cent). However, in this country, according to economists, there is hidden unemployment, because up to 25 per cent of citizens are working for a modest fee and are receiving benefits from the state. Overall, the unemployment rate among the younger generation in the euro area has reached 23.9 per cent.

EU Commissioner for Labour and Social Affairs L?szl? Andor, who is quoted by German Junge Welt, called the figures given by Eurostat "a tragedy for Europe":

"The EU and member states should use all means at their disposal to create jobs and restore economic growth," Andor said.

According to ILO forecasts, unemployment among young people in 2017 will be more than 50 per cent in Spain and more than 30 per cent in Italy and Greece. As a result, there is a psychological problem, the pessimism of young people drives them to different extremes - the number of drug addicts increases, and they fall under the influence of various radical movements.

In addition, according to the European Commission, the youth unemployment rate costs the EU 150 billion euros - 1.2 per cent of EU GDP, which aggravates the economic problems even more.

Analysts from the International Labour Organization do not exclude that the deteriorating situation on the labour market may lead to social unrest. There are already examples. Media almost daily report protests or strikes in a European country. While in most countries, protests are relatively peaceful, in Greece, they turned into riots that killed several people. And it's probably not surprising. According to statistics, every day around 900 people become unemployed in Greece, and in the age group below 24, over 60 out of every 100 Greeks are unemployed.

In recent years, the troubled countries have seen a tendency in which well-educated young people move to richer countries. At first glance, when the boundaries of a common Europe are open to residents of the continent and in more prosperous Germany the labour market is able to accept some of the unemployed from the same Greece, it's a natural solution. But problems of intolerance and xenophobia immediately arise here. For example, despite the fact that austerity was introduced in Greece at the insistence of the European Union, the IMF and the European Central Bank, the Greeks blame the Germans for the fact that their lives have got much worse. In Greece, cartoons depicting the German chancellor in Nazi uniform no longer shock anyone.

And the German press is also not lagging behind in this verbal duel. Over the last two years, many articles do not hesitate to call the Greeks crooks and spongers, suggesting that they should not burden the euro area with their presence. And this attitude to the southerners, who are formally blamed for the financial crisis in the euro area, is dominant not only in Germany and not only with regard to the Greeks. It is quite clear that under such "political sympathies" the north is not particularly happy with the influx of young unemployed people from the south.

And in this situation, some analysts even remembered the already forgotten definition from the distant 1930's - the "lost generation", which is quite natural: the crisis is becoming a way of life for a whole generation of young people thrown out of the labour market who have lost hope to earn money for a decent life. For the time being, European financial institutions are engaged only in emergency injections in various troubled countries. There is no time and money to change the situation with youth unemployment in the most affected countries, although everyone understands that employment should be as important a goal as control over the level of the budget deficit and national debt. We must not forget that young people are part of society that is the most prone to radicalization.

In Europe, they often remember 1968 when European youth unrest swept governments away and changed the political face of the world. And the first bells have already sounded in the suburbs of Paris and London, and on the squares of Athens and Rome ... We think that the situation is not so hopeless. But it is also true that the younger generation of the Old Continent was deceived by the expectations of their fathers for a large, quiet and safe Europe. Will the "lost generation" calmly wait for the promised hope of a bright future under a common roof? Especially as the more the economic crisis lasts, the more evident the political and systemic signs become...