Anti-austerity protests take over Europe

Thousands of Czech university students rallied in Prague on Wednesday, slamming the country’s Education Ministry for introducing tuition fees and boosting the number of government representatives in academic bodies.

The Czech government says reforms are necessary to increase educational standards and secure more funding.

In France, main unions gathered forces on Wednesday for a day of protest action against austerity measures being imposed across the European Union.

In Greece, unions staged nationwide walkouts on Wednesday hours after parliament approved new spending cuts to secure a new EUR 130 billion bailout promised by international lenders to avoid bankruptcy.

The Greek and French protests are part of a day of action by European labor organizations to pressure leaders of the 27-member union into adopting pro-growth measures when they gather in Brussels on Thursday and Friday for a summit.

The debt crisis has forced EU governments to adopt harsh austerity measures and tough economic reforms. The European Commission has predicted that the eurozone currency bloc faces double deep recession while the wider EU economy stagnates in 2012.

The eurozone economy is heading into its second recession in just three years. The bloc’s last recession was in 2009, when its economy contracted 4.3 percent.

Europe plunged into financial crisis in early 2010.

PG/HGH

Views: 0

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes