Gajdos: Unionists Protest in Brussels Against Austerity Cuts

Brussels/Bratislava, December 12 (TASR-correspondent) - About 15,000 people from the whole of Europe converged on Brussels on Monday in a protest march against austerity cuts planned by the EU, Confederation of Labour Unions (KOZ) vice-chair Frantisek Gajdos told a special TASR correspondent on Tuesday. The protest was organised by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), of which the KOZ is a member. "It's a protest against austerity cuts, seeing as European leaders but also European Parliament members are actively talking about a proposal that's supposed to concern 14 member states, including Slovakia," said Gajdos. The states in question that have accrued public budget deficits above 3 percent of GDP are Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. Gajdos warned that plans of the European Commission to consolidate public finances by 0.5 percent of GDP per year at a minimum would have social impacts. "For Slovakia, this would mean almost €550 million, hence more than half a billion," he added. Gajdos pointed out that unionists are well aware that public finances are in a bad state and the situation must be addressed, but not at the expense of those "most vulnerable" - common employees who are low income earners and would feel the brunt of the reform the worst. Instead, the unionists advocate a "proper" consolidation of public finances, in the form of progressive taxing of capital and "rich firms that have been doing well". "But not at the expense of common working people and the poorest," underlined Gajdos. mf/mcs