The social and employment impact of austerity measures taken to fight the economic and financial crisis and the incoming Greek presidency were the main focus of a visit by a delegation of 7 MEPs from the Employment and Social Affairs Committee from 29 to 31 October.

“Ahead of its work on the results of the Troïka, the delegation of the Employment Committee noticed that more than the Troïka, the challenge relies on the economic model it implements as defined by the Eurogroup on the Memorandum. The delegation was also impressed to find out about the impact of the wage reduction on the increase of undeclared work”, said Employment and Social Affairs Committee Chair Pervenche Berès (S&D, FR).

The impact of crisis measures, unemployment and in particular youth unemployment, the social dialogue, the work of the Troika and of the Task force, and other EU files (e.g. Social dimension of Economic and Monetary Union, Youth Employment Initiative, Mobility of Workers and Posting of Workers) as well as the priorities of the incoming Greek Presidency were the main issues discussed with Giannis Stournaras, Minister of Finance, Dimitris Kourkoulas, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister (EU Affairs) and Giannis Vroutsis, Minister of Labour.

MEPs also took part in a lively and controversial meeting with Greek parliamentarians, which focused in particular on the impacts of the austerity measures adopted following the Troika recommendations.

MEPs also met representatives from employees’ and employers’ organizations and addressed with them the challenge of the abolishment of the collective bargaining convention, which was condemned by the ILO as being contrary to ILO Conventions 87 and 98 on freedom of association and collective bargaining.

They also met representatives from the Ministry of Education in charge of Youth and visited a project co-financed by the European Social Fund. They were interested to learn that the World Bank was launching in the country a pilot projet on minimum income.

The delegation led by Employment and Social Affairs Committee Chair Pervenche Berès (S&D, FR), also features the Committee Vice-Chair, Ines Zuber (GUE/NGL, PT), Danuta Jazlowiecka (EPP, PL), Alejandro Cercas (S&D coordinator, ES) and Jutta Steinruck (S&D, DE) as well as Greek MEPs Konstantinos Poupakis (EPP) and Sylvana Rapti (S&D). 

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