Garrido, D. (ed.) (2012) The State of the European Union – The Failure of Austerity, Fundacion Alternativas & Fiedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.
The EU27 economic indicators for the end of 2012 therefore painted a bleak picture: soaring unemployment (10.8 per cent of the active population), a slip back into recession (–0.3 per cent GDP) and a growing public debt ratio (85 per cent). The scenario for the Eurozone was worse and even more so for countries such as Italy, Portugal and Spain. This drama, furthermore, was unfolding in a rather fragile international context; nonetheless, since the overall global situation was generally positive, we cannot lay the blame there. The inference to be drawn is that the one-dimensional policy of austerity and deep cuts in welfare spending decreed by the EU, combined with the avoidance of any stimulus measure, has proved to be an outright failure. No signs on the horizon encourage any optimism that the austerity policy, if continued, will improve matters. This is hardly surprising, as to a large extent, this very policy is the root cause of the negative figures.