Commenting on today’s Euro demonstration for a new path for Europe, Bernadette Ségol, General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation, said     “50,000 people from 21 countries across Europe made a huge effort to come to Brussels to demonstrate peacefully against austerity, against unemployment and for new policies to create jobs and growth.

Comments on Brussels Euro-demonstration  - 04/04/2014 - #NewPathDemo Photos of the Euro-demonstration ETUC European Voice Wrap  

  Tomorrow, the European Trade Union Confederation is holding a Euro-demonstration in Brussels demanding the end of austerity and proposing a new path for Europe, for investment, quality jobs and equality. At least 40,000 workers from 21 European countries will to take the streets of Brussels to express their dissatisfaction with the economic situation and the economic policies being pursued. 

On April 4 some 40,000 trade unionists from all over Europe will march through the centre of Brussels to the EU quarter. For some Belgians this might seem yet another inconvenience caused by Brussels being home to the EU institutions – like the traffic chaos caused by the arrival of Prime Ministers for European Summits, or the security surrounding the recent visit of President Obama.

Commenting on the proposal for a recast Directive on occupational pension funds (IORP), Claudia Menne, Confederal Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), said “The ETUC is sceptical of the need for change. Pensions need stable rules that work long-term.  The vast majority of occupational pensions are purely national. There needs to be a much more detailed assessment of the long-term impact of the proposed cross-border rules. ”

Tomorrow a delegation [1]of young European trade unionists will meet the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso to ask for a change in current austerity policies. In 11 EU member states youth unemployment is over than 25% and it is 50% or higher in Greece (57%), Spain (56%) and Croatia (52%).   Young people are struggling to find jobs, to further their education and have to migrate.

Austerity is not working, and a new path for Europe is urgently needed, European trade union leaders warned at an unprecedented union summit in Brussels today. “Real wages have fallen over the last five years in most EU countries” said Bernadette Ségol, Secretary General of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC).

Video available in several EU languages: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeE4Q3gvQB0HpEPTt7_-diPab3m1tpGht

Berkin Elvan died on March 11 after 269 days in coma as a result of being hit by a tear-gas canister when he was on his way to buy some bread during anti-Government protests in June 2013. The ETUC supports the mourning demonstrations which took place all over the country and condemns the repression and dispersion of many of these rallies.

This cartoon is part of the ETUC campaign "A New Path For Europe'.

A five-point plan for immediate measures to secure a peaceful and acceptable way out of the crisis in Ukraine was endorsed by the ETUC at their executive committee meeting on 11-12 March 2014.   Trade union organisations representing workers throughout the European continent call for:

European economic recovery remains fragile and could be derailed by rising debt burdens, the ETUC warned the European Commission, ECB, Finance Ministers and European employer organisations. The ETUC described the much-heralded  ‘recovery’ of the European economy as weak, and clearly insufficient with unemployment in 2015 still remaining at 11.5% (according to the ILO), at a  meeting of the European Macro Economic Dialogue .

Europe needs a revamped gender equality agenda and concrete actions to address persistent imbalances between men and women in society. Ahead of the European elections in May 2014, the ETUC uses the occasion of International Women’s Day (IWD) on 8 March to encourage women to vote and ensure that their voices are heard.