Six million jobs lost in EU since 2008
European Union economies have shed almost six million jobs since the global economic crisis struck in 2008, the International Labour Organisation said on Monday.
In a report on the European labour market, the UN agency said the employment rate across the 27-nation EU stood at 57.6% in 2012, down 1.6 percentage points on 2008.
"This means that there is still a deficit of 5.9 million jobs to restore employment rates to their pre-crisis levels," the ILO said.
A million jobs have been lost in the past six months alone, it noted.
It underlined that despite some signs of labour market recovery that started to materialise in 2010, only five EU members Austria, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg and Malta - have employment rates above pre-crisis levels.
Countries such as Cyprus, Greece, Portugal and Spain have seen a steady decline in employment rates of more than three percentage points.
As of February, official unemployment stood at 26.3 million in Europe, or 10.2 million more than in 2008, the ILO said.
"Importantly, while the deterioration of employment paused during 2010-2011, it has gained momentum over the past year," it noted.
Average unemployment in the EU has reached 10.9% with double digit rates in some of the most crisis-afflicted countries - and a record of 12% in the 17-nation eurozone.
Young and unskilled workers have been the hardest hit, with youth unemployment across the EU at 23.5% and stark rates of 58 percent in Greece and 55% in Spain.
Companies have increasingly turned to part-time and temporary contracts meanwhile, underscoring the bleak outlook, the ILO said.
"The above trends suggest that is necessary to move to a job-friendly strategy. Much of the emphasis so far has been on reducing budget deficits and restoring external competitiveness through 'internal devaluations'," it said.
"While fiscal and competitiveness goals are important, it is crucial not to tackle them through ill-conceived austerity measures and structural reforms that do not address the root causes of the crisis," it added.
The ILO said that more measures were needed to resolve systemic problems in the financial sector and to unlock credit for small firms.
"More and more countries face downward pressures on wages and employment, thereby affecting domestic consumption and investment and eroding intra-EU trade," it warned.
Cyprus eurozone exit 'not an option'
Finance Minister Haris Georgiades said Monday that leaving the eurozone would take Cyprus back "centuries" and insisted the island has no "Plan B" for reneging on a €10bn bailout.
Leaving the European single currency, Georgiades told parliament's finance committee, was "not up for discussion".
"It's time to correct past mistakes. It's time to pay the bill. We can only spend what is in our pocket. There is no other option," the minister told the committee, which is looking into how Cyprus ended up with controversial and unpopular bailout terms.
"It's a question of reality. Government instructions to the ministries will be to compile next year's budget essentially from scratch. Each item, each programme of the ministries must be explained and justified," Georgiades said.
Addressing the committee earlier, central bank chief Panicos Demetriades blamed Cyprus's political leaders for the harshness of the terms of the bailout.
Under the deal struck with the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, Cyprus will drastically reduce the size of its bloated banking sector, raise taxes, downsize the public sector workforce and privatise some state-owned firms.
The terms of the final bailout, Demetriades said, was a "political decision" with the central bank having the "institutional responsibility of addressing the painful situation".
"I understand there is anger and insecurity from the public. This is why I am here to present the facts with evidence, so everyone understands what really happened," he said.
Demetriades has been widely accused of mishandling the bailout deal and of destroying the island's banks, amid a groundswell of demands that he resign.
"The reforms are unprecedented for the Cypriot banking system and they were expected to cause a reaction," the central bank governor said.
"I respect and understand the people and the difficulties they face."
Demetriades also took aim at Eurogroup finance ministers, saying it was their idea to impose losses on all depositors in the island's banks - large or small - in an initial plan that was angrily rejected by Cypriot MPs.
"Eurozone finance ministers wanted a levy on all deposits insured and uninsured," he said.
European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi last week accused Cyprus of handling the bailout poorly, describing as "not smart" the initial plan to impose a "haircut" on all depositors, which rode roughshod over previous guarantees within the European bloc on balances up to €100 000.
Demetriades also said Cypriot officials had been caught wrong-footed when it turned out the amount of the bailout deal was €10bn instead of the €17bn they had earlier discussed with the lenders.
"During the meeting of the Eurogroup on March 15, the finance ministers of the eurozone informed the president of (Cyprus) and the minister of finance that the funding was limited to €10bn for the state and the remaining €7.0bn would be found from the Cyprus market."
He said when the Eurogroup agreed on March 4 Cyprus would get financing it was assumed it would get the full amount.
"Everyone thought that the reference was to the €17bn of the original (draft) memorandum, of which €10bn would be given to the banks," he said.
Greek banks to be recapitalised separately
Greece's central bank on Sunday said the country's main four lenders would be recapitalised separately, a move that put on hold a planned merger between two of them.
"The Bank of Greece confirms that the recapitalisation process for the four systemic banks (National Bank, Alpha, Eurobank, Piraeus) is proceeding normally and will conclude in April in any case," the central bank said.
"All four banks have already called - or will call in the coming days - shareholder meetings to approve capital increases," it added.
National Bank and Eurobank were several months into a merger process that foresaw a joint recapitalisation.
But a finance ministry source said on Sunday: "Further procedures (on the merger) are suspended."
Greece's so-called troika of creditors - the European Union, International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank - had reportedly expressed concern that the new NBG-Eurobank entity would both dominate the Greek market and would be tough to recapitalise.
"(The creditors) do not like the creation of such a major player with a market share of around 40%," Bank of Greece governor George Provopoulos said in a televised interview last week.
"The troika says, and I can also say, that there will be a greater difficulty in a combined National Bank-Eurobank entity, with capital needs in the order of €1.5bn or slightly higher, a very large sum under the current circumstances. So there is a concern that if private investors cannot be found, it will come under state control," he told state television NET.
The Bank of Greece announcement on Sunday came after new talks between the creditor representatives and Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on Sunday.
Their report will determine whether Athens will receive a loan disbursement of €2.8bn pending since March.
The recapitalisation of Greek banks, who took a major blow last year in helping the country reduce its sovereign debt, is a condition for the continued release of EU-IMF rescue loans for Greece's crisis-hit economy.
A sum of €50bn out of the total EU-IMF bailout fund of €240bn has been earmarked for this purpose.
Under the original plan, at least 10% of new capital was to come from private investors to keep the banks from being effectively nationalised.
This now seems unlikely for National Bank and Eurobank, who will need the full support of the Hellenic financial stability fund, a source close to the process told AFP.
"National Bank and Eurobank have admitted that they will be unable to raise the money," the source said.
The Bank of Greece said the stability fund would "fully" cover the capital increase for each bank.
But a source close to the process noted that the 10% rule "was still available" to whichever bank managed to raise the necessary funds privately.
Alpha Bank has called an emergency meeting of shareholders on Thursday.
Piraeus Bank will follow suit on Friday.
The Bank of Greece governor had noted in his interview that even if a bank had to turn to the Hellenic financial stability fund for help, "it's not exactly state control".
"In the Stability Fund there is ECB representation, and the EU Commission, and the troika has oversight. In no way would the troika want a major bank to operate as a traditional (state) bank. I am also concerned and would not want it to happen. I do not think it will," Provopoulos had said.
Iron Lady Thatcher changed face of Britain
Margaret Thatcher, the "Iron Lady",
was a towering figure in British 20th century politics, a grocer's daughter
with a steely resolve who was loved and loathed in equal measure as she crushed
the unions and privatised vast swathes of industry.
She died on Monday, aged 87, after suffering a stroke. During her life in politics some worshipped her as a moderniser who transformed the country, others bitterly accused her of entrenching the divide between the rich and the poor.
The abiding images of her premiership will remain those of conflict: Huge police confrontations with the miners' union, her riding a tank in a white headscarf, and flames rising above Trafalgar Square in the riots over an unpopular local tax which ultimately led to her downfall.
To those who opposed her she was blunt to a degree - "the lady's not for turning", she once famously informed members of her own Conservative Party who were urging her to moderate her policies.
Others who crossed her path, particularly in Europe, were subjected to withering diatribes often referred to as "handbaggings", named after the black leather bag she invariably carried.
Britain's only woman prime minister, the tough, outspoken Thatcher led the Conservatives to three election victories, governing from 1979 to 1990, the longest continuous period in office by a British prime minister since the early 19th century.
Broke the mould
With US president Ronald Reagan, she formed a strong alliance against communism and was rewarded by seeing the Berlin Wall torn down in 1989 though she worried a unified Germany would dominate Europe.
Her radical, right-wing views broke the mould of British politics, changing the status quo so profoundly that even subsequent Labour governments accepted many of her policies.
The woman who became known simply as "Maggie", transferred big chunks of the economy from state hands into private ownership.
"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money," she once said.
Her personal credo, founded on competition, private enterprise, thrift and self-reliance, gave birth to a political philosophy known as "Thatcherism".
But her tough economic medicine put millions out of work, alienated many and largely destroyed industries such as mining.
Winter of discontent
Her combative stance antagonised allies in Europe and her intolerance of dissent eventually led to her downfall.
"A brilliant tyrant surrounded by mediocrities," was how former premier Harold Macmillan described her. "That bloody woman," was the less charitable verdict of Edward Heath, another prime minister and her predecessor as Conservative Party leader.
At the peak of her powers, Thatcher's sheer personality made her one of the West's best known figures. A workaholic, she put in 18-hour days, after which she would relax over a glass of whisky.
After winning the 3 May 1979 election, she launched social and economic reforms designed to end what she saw as a spiral of industrial decline, crippling taxes and intrusive state control, a period under the Labour government that had become known as the "winter of discontent".
Fighting inflation-boosting pay rises and modernising the economy meant curbing the power of organised labour.
After changes to the law and a bitter year-long strike which ended in defeat for the miners in 1985, the days when unions could dictate to British governments were over.
Era of popular capitalism
Britain held its breath in 1982 when Thatcher dispatched a naval task force to the Falkland Islands, which had been seized by Argentine invaders. Despite losing several warships, the British eventually reclaimed the south Atlantic islands 74 days later. A total of 649 Argentines and 255 British troops died.
An opinion poll in 1981 rated Thatcher Britain's most disliked prime minister of all time. But, two years later, after the Falklands war, she was swept back to power on a wave of patriotism and in 1987, her third successive election victory gave her another big majority in parliament.
Thatcher ushered in an era of "popular capitalism" that raised home ownership in Britain to 68% and made one person in five a shareholder.
She launched a sweeping drive to privatise state monopolies such as gas, oil, steel, telephones, airports and British Airways, with electricity and water to follow.
But while Thatcherism made many better off, unemployment doubled by the mid-1980s to more than three million - a level not seen since the hungry 1930s. Opponents said Thatcher had created a nation divided between the wealthier south and the poorer north.
Thatcher developed a close relationship with Reagan, who called her "the best man in England".
Strained relations
It was the Soviet Communist Party daily Pravda that dubbed Thatcher the "Iron Lady", but she revelled in the nickname.
When Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985 however she formed a strong working relationship with him.
After Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, Thatcher famously cautioned US President George Bush against being "wobbly" in opposing President Saddam Hussein.
Relations with Britain's European neighbours were strained over her reluctance to embrace plans for closer integration.
She demanded a huge refund on Britain's contributions to the European budget and brought European Community business to a virtual standstill until she got it.
The late French President Francois Mitterrand once said she had "the eyes of Caligula and the lips of Marilyn Monroe".
In 1984 an Irish Republican Army bomb attack on her Brighton hotel nearly killed her entire cabinet. She was unscathed, but five people died and some close colleagues were badly injured.
Decline into dementia
Within hours of the attack, and on schedule, she gave the closing address to her party's annual conference, vowing there would be no weakening in the fight against terrorism.
In 1984 Thatcher and China's then-Premier Zhao Ziyang signed a declaration under which Britain agreed to hand over Hong Kong to China in 1997 after 156 years of British colonial rule.
After 11 years in power, Thatcher bowed to a revolt and pulled out of a leadership contest with her former defence minister Michael Heseltine. A new local tax, known as the "poll tax", which had led to riots, contributed to her downfall.
Thatcher retained enough influence to ensure Heseltine did not succeed her, advancing the claims of her protégé John Major, who served as prime minister until 1997.
"We are leaving Downing Street for the last time after 11 and a half wonderful years and we are very happy that we leave the United Kingdom in a very, very much better state than when we came here," Thatcher said with tears in her eyes.
She suffered a series of mild strokes in late 2001 and 2002, after which she cut back on public appearances and later cancelled her speaking schedule.
Her decline into dementia was chronicled in the Oscar-winning film The Iron Lady, with Meryl Streep. Cast as a bewildered widow, the very lonely Iron Lady was left only with her memories.
She died on Monday, aged 87, after suffering a stroke. During her life in politics some worshipped her as a moderniser who transformed the country, others bitterly accused her of entrenching the divide between the rich and the poor.
The abiding images of her premiership will remain those of conflict: Huge police confrontations with the miners' union, her riding a tank in a white headscarf, and flames rising above Trafalgar Square in the riots over an unpopular local tax which ultimately led to her downfall.
To those who opposed her she was blunt to a degree - "the lady's not for turning", she once famously informed members of her own Conservative Party who were urging her to moderate her policies.
Others who crossed her path, particularly in Europe, were subjected to withering diatribes often referred to as "handbaggings", named after the black leather bag she invariably carried.
Britain's only woman prime minister, the tough, outspoken Thatcher led the Conservatives to three election victories, governing from 1979 to 1990, the longest continuous period in office by a British prime minister since the early 19th century.
Broke the mould
With US president Ronald Reagan, she formed a strong alliance against communism and was rewarded by seeing the Berlin Wall torn down in 1989 though she worried a unified Germany would dominate Europe.
Her radical, right-wing views broke the mould of British politics, changing the status quo so profoundly that even subsequent Labour governments accepted many of her policies.
The woman who became known simply as "Maggie", transferred big chunks of the economy from state hands into private ownership.
"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money," she once said.
Her personal credo, founded on competition, private enterprise, thrift and self-reliance, gave birth to a political philosophy known as "Thatcherism".
But her tough economic medicine put millions out of work, alienated many and largely destroyed industries such as mining.
Winter of discontent
Her combative stance antagonised allies in Europe and her intolerance of dissent eventually led to her downfall.
"A brilliant tyrant surrounded by mediocrities," was how former premier Harold Macmillan described her. "That bloody woman," was the less charitable verdict of Edward Heath, another prime minister and her predecessor as Conservative Party leader.
At the peak of her powers, Thatcher's sheer personality made her one of the West's best known figures. A workaholic, she put in 18-hour days, after which she would relax over a glass of whisky.
After winning the 3 May 1979 election, she launched social and economic reforms designed to end what she saw as a spiral of industrial decline, crippling taxes and intrusive state control, a period under the Labour government that had become known as the "winter of discontent".
Fighting inflation-boosting pay rises and modernising the economy meant curbing the power of organised labour.
After changes to the law and a bitter year-long strike which ended in defeat for the miners in 1985, the days when unions could dictate to British governments were over.
Era of popular capitalism
Britain held its breath in 1982 when Thatcher dispatched a naval task force to the Falkland Islands, which had been seized by Argentine invaders. Despite losing several warships, the British eventually reclaimed the south Atlantic islands 74 days later. A total of 649 Argentines and 255 British troops died.
An opinion poll in 1981 rated Thatcher Britain's most disliked prime minister of all time. But, two years later, after the Falklands war, she was swept back to power on a wave of patriotism and in 1987, her third successive election victory gave her another big majority in parliament.
Thatcher ushered in an era of "popular capitalism" that raised home ownership in Britain to 68% and made one person in five a shareholder.
She launched a sweeping drive to privatise state monopolies such as gas, oil, steel, telephones, airports and British Airways, with electricity and water to follow.
But while Thatcherism made many better off, unemployment doubled by the mid-1980s to more than three million - a level not seen since the hungry 1930s. Opponents said Thatcher had created a nation divided between the wealthier south and the poorer north.
Thatcher developed a close relationship with Reagan, who called her "the best man in England".
Strained relations
It was the Soviet Communist Party daily Pravda that dubbed Thatcher the "Iron Lady", but she revelled in the nickname.
When Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985 however she formed a strong working relationship with him.
After Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, Thatcher famously cautioned US President George Bush against being "wobbly" in opposing President Saddam Hussein.
Relations with Britain's European neighbours were strained over her reluctance to embrace plans for closer integration.
She demanded a huge refund on Britain's contributions to the European budget and brought European Community business to a virtual standstill until she got it.
The late French President Francois Mitterrand once said she had "the eyes of Caligula and the lips of Marilyn Monroe".
In 1984 an Irish Republican Army bomb attack on her Brighton hotel nearly killed her entire cabinet. She was unscathed, but five people died and some close colleagues were badly injured.
Decline into dementia
Within hours of the attack, and on schedule, she gave the closing address to her party's annual conference, vowing there would be no weakening in the fight against terrorism.
In 1984 Thatcher and China's then-Premier Zhao Ziyang signed a declaration under which Britain agreed to hand over Hong Kong to China in 1997 after 156 years of British colonial rule.
After 11 years in power, Thatcher bowed to a revolt and pulled out of a leadership contest with her former defence minister Michael Heseltine. A new local tax, known as the "poll tax", which had led to riots, contributed to her downfall.
Thatcher retained enough influence to ensure Heseltine did not succeed her, advancing the claims of her protégé John Major, who served as prime minister until 1997.
"We are leaving Downing Street for the last time after 11 and a half wonderful years and we are very happy that we leave the United Kingdom in a very, very much better state than when we came here," Thatcher said with tears in her eyes.
She suffered a series of mild strokes in late 2001 and 2002, after which she cut back on public appearances and later cancelled her speaking schedule.
Her decline into dementia was chronicled in the Oscar-winning film The Iron Lady, with Meryl Streep. Cast as a bewildered widow, the very lonely Iron Lady was left only with her memories.
US gun control tops Obama's agenda
President Barack Obama heads to the site of December's deadly school shooting on Monday, looking for a breakthrough in his efforts to curb gun violence as the US Congress returns from a two-week recess with gun control legislation high on agenda.
Obama is headed to Newton, Connecticut, where a gunman killed 20 young children and six educators in one the worst school shootings ever in the US.
The administration moved quickly after the shooting amid concerns that the high emotions would settle and politics would go back to normal on one of the country's most sensitive issues.
The top gun lobby has opposed the gun control drive, and the president's proposals have weakened in the months since the shooting amid fears that the more controversial ones, such as an assault weapons ban, will harm an overall gun control package.
One of Obama senior advisers, Dan Pfeiffer, suggested to ABC on Sunday that the lack of a straightforward vote because of legislative manoeuvring would be an insult to people who lost family members in the shooting.
He pointed out that senators of both parties had applauded when Obama called for a vote during his State of the Union speech in January.
"Now that the cameras are off and they are not forced to look the Newtown families in the face, now they want to make it harder and filibuster it," Pfeiffer said.
Senators could start debating gun legislation before week's end, but leaders might take more time to seek a breakthrough deal on expanding background checks for gun buyers - the proposal seen as having the best chance of passage.
Two influential senators, one from the Democrats and one from opposition Republicans, are working on an agreement that could expand background checks on firearms sales to include gun shows and online transactions, Senate aides said on Sunday.
Federal background checks are currently required only for transactions handled by the roughly 55 000 federally licensed firearms dealers.
Private sales such as gun show or online purchases are exempt. The system is designed to keep guns from criminals, people with serious mental problems, some drug abusers and others.
Gun control
After the Connecticut massacre, Obama proposed applying the requirement to virtually all firearms sales. Gun control advocates consider expanded background checks to be the most effective step lawmakers could take to curb gun violence.
The National Rifle Association (NRA), the nation's most powerful gun lobby, and other critics say the checks are ignored by criminals, and they fear that expanding the system could be a step to the government maintaining files on gun owners.
Other Obama gun control priorities include banning assault weapons and ammunition magazines with more than 10 rounds.
Both bans are expected to be offered as amendments, but the assault weapons ban seems sure to be defeated, and the high-capacity magazine prohibition also faces difficult odds.
Gun control advocates are worried their allies might cut a deal that goes too far.
"We want a vote on the issues. We don't want them watered down so they're unrecognisable," said Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. "If they can't vote for it, let the American people judge them on that. Don't let a dumbed-down bill be the outcome of this."
Justice department figures show that from 1994, when the current background check system began, through 2010, 118 million potential gun buyers were checked and 2.1 million were denied firearms. Defenders say the data proves the checks prevent many dangerous people from getting weapons.
With or without an agreement, the Senate gun legislation would toughen federal laws against illegal firearms sales, including against people who buy firearms for criminals or others barred from owning them. The legislation also would provide $40m a year, a modest increase from current levels of $30m, for a federal program that helps schools take safety measures such as reinforcing classroom doors
China-US relations come under spotlight
China and the US will aim to "solve
sensitive issues" during a weekend visit by Secretary of State John Kerry,
Beijing's foreign ministry said on Monday, as the two row over trade and North
Korea racks up tensions.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said Kerry would meet Chinese
leaders on 13 and 14 April, in his first trip to Asia as America's top diplomat. He is currently in the Middle East and will also go to Japan and South Korea.
The Asia leg of Kerry's travel comes as concern grows that North Korea is preparing a fourth nuclear test and a missile launch.
Pyongyang has ratcheted up tensions since it carried out its third nuclear test in February with provocative language and threats of a nuclear strike, despite repeated appeals for restraint by Beijing, its sole major ally.
The two sides will exchange views on "China-US relations and international and regional issues of common interest", Hong said.
China and the US are embroiled in a series of disputes over issues ranging from cyberspying to currency.
Hong said China was ready to "deepen practical co-operation across the board and manage and solve sensitive issues and continue to embark on the road of building a constructive partnership and a new type of major country relations so as to benefit the people of both countries".
Washington is concerned that the Chinese government is sponsoring some cyberattacks against US corporations, infrastructure and government.
The US also accuses China of undervaluing its yuan currency, keeping Chinese exports unfairly cheap.
"Currently, China-US relations are at an important period of carrying forward the past achievements," said Hong Lei.
