Camusso: Finally Europe thinks about education and leaves the austerity behind

The Leader of the Italian General Confederation of Labor is in Brussels to meet Schulz. “Well done on the release from the Excessive Deficit Procedure”. The Labor Union supports the candidacy of the German for President of the Commission

“The first good news in relations with Europe for quite some time in these parts,” that’s how Susanna Camusso, leader of the main Italian Trade union, Italian General Confederation of Labour (Cgil), commented in Brussels on the announcement that Italy was released from the Excessive Deficit Procedure. Congratulations to Italy, certainly, but let’s remember that “we should have never ended up in this situation.”

The reversal was granted by Brussels, who in any case underlined that the government must not lose a grip on structural reform. In Camusso’s opinion, the plan suggested by the Commission is absolutely “positive”. The attention the European Commission gave to education and growth seems to have really made an impression. “We are faced with a language altogether different in the approach to these problems” Camusso commented because Europe seems to have stopped with the usual verbiage of “rigor” and now requests a “policy for growth.”

A move that the leader of Cgil interprets as a reversal – positive – compared to the “tendency to cuts currently in force in our country.” The omen is that we recover, afterwards to invest in education and in favor of youth employment. Italy cannot, however, trust in the deception that the Youth Guarantee, in other words 6 billion Euro earmarked by the EU budget to finance youth employment, can be enough alone. As revealed by the Minister of Economy, Fabrizio Saccomanni, in reality these European funds will not be very much. Therefore it is unthinkable, according to Camusso, that they only give each other administrative answers: they need additional investments.

The reason for the visit to Brussels was to meet with the European President of the Parliament, Martin Schulz, not only for the presentation of IGCL’s plan for work, for which they seemed satisfied, but also to discuss the next European election campaign and the proposal, appraised by Camusso, of many European Socialist parties to support Schulz’s candidacy. In any case, everyone already agrees, the issues of social justice will be at the center of the campaign, in the hope of winning the battle that is against euro-skepticism.

Camilla Tagino