Prediction: Bleak outlook for EU

The slide downhill will continue until millions of Europeans will face the kind of poverty we have come to accept from some of the African and Asian countries.

Vladimir Nesterov writing at StrategicCulture:
The European Union’s statistics agency   Eurostat is sceptical of the promises being made by European politicians to reduce the level of poverty in their countries to 20 million people by 2020. At present, this figure stands at 120 million people. Eurostat experts maintain that reducing this amount by six times over the next seven years, especially amid the continuing financial and economic crisis, is extremely problematic. Or to put it more precisely – inconceivable. ....

.......In the European Union, it is generally accepted that the biggest threat to the well-being of Europeans is what is referred to as monetary poverty, which covers almost 84 million people. The monetary poverty indicator reflects the number of citizens whose real earnings are less than 60 percent of the national average. In Europe it is believed that this level of poverty ensures physiological survival. .....

.....Statistics indicate that in 22 European countries between 2009 and 2012, the number of people asking for charitable donations grew from 2 million to 3.5 million (by 75 percent). Even in relatively affluent Germany, there are 600,000 people who would not be able to manage without food aid or free meals. ....

.....Two thirds of the Red Cross branches in EU countries are now having to hand out food to Europeans in need. Red Cross staff are being kept particularly busy in Spain. In 2012, the Red Cross handed out more than 33,000 tons of food aid to hungry Spaniards, where 3 million people in the country asked for help. Furthermore, in a number of cases the Red Cross also helped to pay for electricity, water and housing. More than 20,000 Spanish families received financial aid.

Every 7th Romanian – more than 3 million people – is living in poverty. The relative level of poverty in Romania has grown in recent years to 40 percent. This is already the fourth year that the Romanian Red Cross has been distributing food aid. In 2012, food aid was given to more than 80,000 families.....

....More than 14 percent of the population in Poland is unemployed. Incidentally, unemployment in the EU reached a record 12.2 percent in September, covering 19.5 million people. Youth unemployment, meanwhile, is at a staggering 23%. It is interesting that these figures are better in Ukraine – 8 percent and 19 percent respectively....