Europe jobs crisis poses social order ‘threat’

Social tensions and a rise in political extremism could rise to dangerous levels unless Europe’s leaders tackle rising joblessness, the EU’s top employment official has warned.

Vladimir Spidla, commissioner for social affairs, said a tide of school leavers with few job prospects posed a “latent threat” to European social order.
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His comments come days ahead of what was meant to be a high-profile “jobs summit” involving the EU’s 27 national leaders, but which has been quietly downgraded over recent weeks as politicians balked at giving more power over social policy to Brussels.

Few national leaders wanted to be associated with a special summit on jobs while unemployment is rising, diplomats say.

Despite the snub, Mr Spidla told the FT that Europe had to focus on the social aspect of the financial crisis if it wanted to avoid a rise in strife.

“If you are in a situation where lots of people are excluded from work, this will of course create social tensions,” he said. “The consequences can be limited, but they can also prove dangerous: we’ve all seen what happened in the banlieues in France, we’ve seen also the rise of extremism in central Europe and elsewhere.”

Unemployment and lack of opportunity for second-generation immigrants were widely seen as contributing to large-scale riots in France in 2005. A state of emergency was declared after an estimated 8,000 vehicles were burnt over three weeks.

Mr Spidla has blamed “political populism, hate speech and media hype” for a perceived increase in attacks on members of the Roma community in Hungary and the Czech Republic among others.

The situation is set to worsen in the coming months as young people graduate and look for work, Mr Spidla added.

“The number of people finishing their studies won't change, but the ability of the job market to give them employment will.”

Mr Spidla, one of the most left-leaning members of the commission, said the crisis highlighted the importance of “social Europe”, a concept that was all-but dismissed at the start of the current commission five years ago.

Preparations are afoot for the jobs summit in Prague on Thursday, shortened to a single morning ahead of other European business. The meeting now will consist of a far more conventional engagement between Brussels politicians, trade unionists and employers' representatives, and is likely to attract little publicity.

The scaling down of the summit is being interpreted as a snub by trades unions, which had hoped to use the limelight to push their “social Europe” agenda.

John Monks, head of the European trade union confederation, said: “It’s disappointing, it started with great ambition. The impression is that unemployment is a lower-order issue.”

Mr Spidla insisted “the diplomatic format of the meeting may have changed, but not its ambition”.