Showing posts with label bloc. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bloc. Show all posts

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Switzerland to make decision on free movement

In Switzerland people will go to the voting booths to make a decision on whether to allow EU citizens to enter the Swiss labour market in the future or not. 

As a result of a negative outcome (i.e. the majority of the voters say "no") of the vote it will be hard for non-Swiss workers to find a job in Switzerland and even crossing the Swiss borders would take more paperwork. 

Even though Switzerland is not part of the 27-nation bloc it was among those countries who introduced the free movement of labour. Since its introduction the number of people entered the Swiss labour market has reached one million. 

A not-favoured outcome can put Switzerland's relationship with the EU at risk as the Swiss have always been tied to the European economic and monetary union politically as well as economically. 

Swiss officials say it is a matter of life now. Cheap labour is always favoured, however, in the period of a recession they cannot allow to employ foreign workers as it can result in the loss of jobs for many Swiss citizens. 

They claim that low-paid workers did good when the country enjoyed an economic boom, but it was a long time ago. 

Brussels has already warned Switzerland about the poll. According to BBC the Swiss are very well aware of the fact that "one in every two Swiss francs is earned through trade with the EU, and one in every three Swiss jobs depends on that trade." 

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Unemployment rate at its peak

The ongoing recession worsened the unemployment rate in the European Union, which was 8%, the highest in two years. More and more firms make a certain amount of their employees redundant and it is expected that they continue to give their workers a sack until the very end of 2010. 

It is interesting to see that while unemployment is perhaps the only issue that causes a significant threat to the nations of the EU, the other major economic issue, inflation, that usually accompanies unemployment, fell to 1.1%, the lowest in 10 years. 

Spain is affected by the recession the most in terms of unemployment, whose figure was more than 14%, while the Netherlands and Austria are the least (the figures were 2.7% and 3.9%, respectively). 

The central bank of the European Union, the so-called European Central Bank, is expected to cut the interest rates of the eurozone to give a boost to the economies and try to bring the inflation rate closer to the designated 2%. The decision on the cut will be made next week. 

Unemployment rate rose to 7.4% for the 27-nation bloc last December.