Brussels: Police using water cannons to disperse protesters in Brussels. Thousands of trade union workers are protesting in Brussels for a ‘Euro-demonstration’ against austerity measures, organised by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and police are using water cannon to disperse them from city centre. Unemployment figures for January 2014 showed jobless people cross the figure of around 26 million. The highest rates were in Greece (28%) and Spain (25.8%).
Trade unionists are raising slogans for a “different and better” Europe, and demanding EU leadership take action to combat social dumping.
Bernadette Ségol, general secretary of ETUC, said: “Our message is that austerity is not working. We believe that new policies are needed to get Europe back to work. The crisis of unemployment and poverty has yet to be tackled.”
The demonstration is part of ETUC’s “new path for Europe” campaign based on investment in sustainable growth and jobs in a bid to kick-start economic activity in the member states. ETUC’s plan envisages creating between nine and 11 million jobs across the EU over the next ten years.
“We suggest investing 2% of the European gross domestic product, about €260 billion every year, in a European employment policy”, said Anne Demelenne, secretary of Belgian union Algemeen Belgisch Vakverbond (ABVV) while talking to media europe.
Media euro states that some unions are hopeful that the next European Parliament will back the plan. “There are echoes of the policy in the manifestos of the European socialists, the united left and the Greens”, said Owen Tudor, head of the EU and international relations department at the UK’s Trades Union Congress (TUC).
