Brussel vergroot sociale uitgaven om gevolgen recessie te verzachten (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission is studying ways to mitigate the impact of the financial crisis on workers, as unemployment in the eurozone grew spikes and over 1 million people hit the streets in France in one of the latest protests àcross Europe.

"Obviously, we are concerned about social movements across Europe. We are keeping a close eye on what is happening in France, the UK and elsewhere," commission spokeswoman Chantal Hughes told journalists in Brussels on Friday (30 January).

"The [EU social affairs] commissioner understands the frustrations that workers feel at the moment, the uncertainty they might be facing in terms of their unemployment prospects."

Her statement comes after between 1 million (police estimates) and 2.5 million (organisers' own estimate) people took to the streets in France on Thursday for a one-day national strike, calling for an end to job cuts and voicing opposition against government reforms.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy i acknowledged that the protesters had "legitimate" concerns and promised to meet trade unions in February for talks.

The French unrest comes after demonstrations in Baltic states Lithuania and Latvia, Greece and the UK, where protests spread on Friday over the hiring of foreigners at British petrol refineries.

The International Monetary Fund predicted earlier this week that Britain would be one of the countries worst hit by the world recession.

More EU money to be made available?

EU social affairs commissioner Vladimir Spidla i "has already said a number of times that he will encourage and use all the levers that he has at his disposition to make it easier for workers to keep their jobs and to find new jobs if they lose their jobs," Ms Hughes said.

"In particular we can be looking at things like the European social fund and the European globalisation fund."

The European globalisation fund was launched in 2007 with the aim to help workers who have lost their job "as a result of changing global trade patterns to find another job as quickly as possible."

It has at its disposition ˆ500 million per year, but only ˆ60 million were used in its first year of existence.

This figure was "probably reflecting a different economic environment," as the commission has already received "a number of requests for aid" in the wake of the economic crisis, Ms Hughes explained.

Consequently, Brussels will "if necessary reconsider how much money is available to the European globalisation fund."

Increasing unemployment

Meanwhile, EU figures published on Friday showed that unemployment in EU countries using the euro reached 8 percent in December - the highest rate in more than two years - up from 7.9 percent in November.

Unemployment in the whole 27-member bloc also increased from 7.3 in November to 7.4 percent in December, according to EU statistics office Eurostat.

Spain and Latvia recorded the highest numbers of jobless people with 14.4 and 10.4 percent, respectively. Spain and Estonia also noted the highest increase in unemployment rates.

By contrast, the Netherlands and Austria scored best with 2.7 and 3.9 percent of unemployed respectively.