1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites

Time to act!

Ute Schaeffer / aiMay 28, 2013

The cards are being reshuffled - with a few aces going to the young generation. At the employment summit in Paris everyone agreed that something needs to be done! And now? It's time for action, says DW's Ute Schaeffer.

https://p.dw.com/p/18fQK

Since the 1930s, the term "New Deal" has been a synonym for a certain kind of economic and social reform. Back then, US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt implemented his New Deal reforms as the answer to the global economic crisis. The policy was a great success and helped give hope to an entire generation. And despite the economic crisis, the US stayed firm on the course of democracy - unlike Germany.

Lost Generation

Today, the situation is similar to what it was back then, with one in four under the age of 25 in the European Union without a job or apprenticeship. In Greece or Spain, it's one in two. The financial and economic crisis has created a generation without hope: wherever there's more austerity, there will be less money for education, less employment, less consumption. And that means: fewer jobs.

The members of the young generation have worked for their good education, but they have noting to look forward to. It is a lost generation, a generation that no longer trusts the social and political system developed in Europe, which claims to protect citizens from poverty and marginalization.

Ute Schaeffer Photo: DW/Per Henriksen
Ute Schaeffer is editor-in-chief for regionalized contentImage: DW

"Europe" for many young people has become a disappointment. It's lost its credibility. And this indirectly raises the question whether the European model will be able to hold up in the future. And that doubt is a good reason to act quickly - and not just formulate plans and intentions. 

Europe's credibility at stake

Everyone at the employment summit in Paris agreed that the bloc's youth needs jobs and perspective – and soon! That's what the New Deal for Europe is supposed to achieve. But now it's important that the New Deal reaches the young generation quickly and effectively. And that is not just a matter of jobs and money.

The most recent unrest in Sweden - so far a model welfare state - shows that where there's marginalization, poverty and no future, there will be violence. It's then that democracy loses ground - as the decline in voter turnout in the new EU member states illustrates. And it is then that populist and radical ideas spread - one only has to look at Hungary to see that.

If Europe gives up on an entire generation, then eventually it will undermine the entire European idea based on the fundamental values of justice and freedom and on the idea that there are good and comparable opportunities for work and life across the whole of the EU. The European idea presupposes a common Europe, not one fragmented into different levels of development and prosperity as currently is the case.

This issue is thus not just important to the young people immediately affected, but also for Europe as a whole. It's important that the credibility of the European idea is restored and that the message that it has a future comes across loud and clear. In short: it's time to finally do something.

Election campaigning

The Paris summit resulted in declarations of intent. But at least they were put forward with one voice coming from a high political level. Even German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and his French counterpart Pierre Moscovici attended the talks. So far the EU has increased its budget for employment measures from six to 60 billion euros until 2020. France and Germany are working in tandem on the issue - which is not a given in the current eurozone crisis. But they have good reason to do so: in both countries it has the making of a vote-winner, even if so far it's been tackled only half-heartedly. The French socialists see themselves as defenders of "labor," and in Germany, the issue will come in handy for the general election in September.