Invitation "Greece, Spain, Italy... Saving into collapse? - European Economic Policy in Crisis" - 10 June, 19h

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Dear Friend ,

AK Europa, the Brussels office of the Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour, and the ÖGB Europabüro, the Brussels office of the Austrian Trade Union Federation, would like to remind you of a panel discussion on

Greece, Spain, Italy... Saving into collapse?

European Economic Policy in Crisis

Thursday, 10 June 2010, 19h

Permanent Representation of Austria to the EU

30, Avenue de Cortenbergh, 1040 Brussels

The economic crisis has brought the weaknesses of the European Economic and Monetary Union to light. Structural imbalances within the European Union were tolerated and even indirectly supported by declaring national competitiveness the top priority of economic policy. In the area of fiscal policy one limited oneself to restrictive rules and tax competition instead of active coordination. The principle of competition instead of cooperation meant that the Euro countries drifted apart in their economic development, with ever-higher current account deficits on one side and surpluses on the other. Neither political will nor the existing economic competences will be sufficient at EU level to compensate this development.

Even today, political recipes do hardly more than call for a tightening of the Stability Pact. Instead of tackling the problems - weak economic and employment growth, increased income and wealth concentration, decoupling the financial markets from the real economy - at the root, one can once again observe a narrowing down to a supply-side economy, which could lead Europe into stagnation. As a recently issued study of the Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour shows, the concentration on a premature consolidation of the national budgets entails economic dangers. What kind of alternative budget consolidation and economic policy strategies could be followed in general will be discussed by:

Achim Truger, Hans Böckler Stiftung, author of the study

Georg Busch, European Commission

Günther Chaloupek, Austrian Chamber of Labour

Michael Dauderstädt, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung

MEP Liem Hoang Ngoc, Member of the European Parliament

Moderation: Raimund Löw, ORF Brussels

The panel discussion will be held in German/English/French and translated simultaneously.

Following the discussion we would like to invite you to join us for a buffet dinner.

Please click here to register until 9 June 2010.

For further information:

Tel: 02 230 62 54 or 02 230 74 63

E-Mail: office@akeuropa.eu or europabuero@oegb-eu.at