French president declares end of Europe's debt crisis during state visit to Japan, despite continent's record unemployment
François Hollande, the French president, has declared an end to the eurozone debt crisis, despite record unemployment across the continent.
"You must understand that the crisis in the eurozone is over," Hollande told an audience in Japan during a three-day state visit.
"Europe has become more stable, but it must now be oriented toward growth," he said during a speech in Tokyo. "I believe that the crisis, far from weakening the eurozone, will strengthen it.
"Now, we have all the instruments of stability and solidarity. There was an improvement in the economic governance of the eurozone, we set up a banking union, we have rules on budgetary matters that allow us to be better coordinated and have a form of convergence."
Hollande's comments come a week after thousands took to the streets of European cities to vent their anger at the "troika" of international bodies – the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and European Central Bank (ECB) – whose insistence on austerity is blamed for worsening their economic hardship. There were angry scenes in Frankfurt near the ECB headquarters, as well as in Spain and Portugal, two of the countries that have received multi-billion euro bailouts to help them plug fiscal holes. Eurozone unemployment is at a record high – with 19.38 million out of work – and the single currency area is in its longest recession since it was created in 1999.
Youth unemployment is even more dire with 7.5 million (24%) young Europeans aged between 15 and 24 not in employment, education or training, according to EU data. More than half of young people in Greece (59%) and Spain (55%) are unemployed.
Finance and labour ministers from Spain, Germany, Italy and France are scheduled to meet in Rome on Friday. They aim to hammer out a European plan to "rescue an entire generation" who fear they will never find jobs.
Just two weeks ago Hollande warned that Europe's young unemployment could lead to the "complete breakdown of identifying with Europe".
Despite Hollande's claims that the crisis is over, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said eurozone countries must follow Germany's lead in tightening budgets and reforming labour markets. "It's greatly in Germany's interests to do everything so that structural reforms and budget discipline can take place in other countries," she said in her weekly podcast.
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