PRESIDENT MICHAEL D Higgins has again warned of the serious consequences stemming from the growing unemployment crisis in the European Union.

Speaking at European Social Service Conference in Dublin, the President reiterated his call for greater focus from EU leaders on getting young people working across the continent.

Mr Higgins pointed to  Greece and Spain where the national  unemployment  rates stood at 27 per cent while the figure almost doubled for young people without jobs in both countries.

He said 26 million people were currently unemployed in Europe which was two million more than record last year

Social Cohesion

The gap between the rich and poor was also a theme of the speech with the President calling for more social cohesion  in Europe.

“Such levels of unemployment, and the poverty, social marginalisation and exclusion it creates and sustains, are serious contradictions and obstacles to a genuinely inclusive citizenship,” Higgins said.

He added: “Almost everything – from life expectancy, to levels of mental illness, illiteracy and violence in the community – is affected not by how wealthy a society is, but how equal it is.  Societies with a larger gap between rich and poor are bad for everyone in them, including the well off.”

A more equal society is a healthier society judged by almost every indicator available.

The current economic crisis has created the conditions for the “spawning of extremist tendencies, racism and xenophobia” in the European Union,  Mr Higgins also warned

Howevever, he welcomed an initiative put forward during Ireland’s six month Presidency of the European Union which focused on getting young people into work

He also thanked  President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, for making the Youth Guarantee project a key focus, saying the “scourge of unemployment” deserves the attention it is now receiving.

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