A Programme for Full Employment in the 1990s: Report of the Kreisky Commission on Employment Issues in Europe

Throughout the 1980s Europe has experienced the problem of mass unemployment, with 20 million Europeans - more than 10% of the labour force - out of work. Faced with the prospect of this trend continuing into the 1990s, the Commission on Employment Issues in Europe, under the direction of the former Austrian chancellor, Bruno Kreisky, was set up in 1986 to investigate the problem and offer possible solutions. The result is A Programme for Full Employment in the 1990s , the work of over 80 of Europe's leading public figures. Central to the Commission's report is the premise that unemployment is as much a political as an economic phenomenon: persistently high levels of unemployment may lead to political defeatism and social apathy, but this does not mean that the problem is either inevitable or acceptable. The Commission outlines a Six-Point Plan for co-ordinated European expansion, an aggressive new strategy for economic growth and job creation which aims at qualitative as well as quantitative development. The perceived problems of such rapid economic growth would be offset by channelling resources into a variety of job creation schemes, which would also benefit Europe as a whole, including: new approaches to environmental protection; the development of better transport and telecommunications links; urban renewal and improved housing; the expansion of cultural and education programmes; training and research into the new technologies, and increased levels of aid to developing countries. This radical call for cooperation between European governments to take positive action to tackle the unemployment crisis is a forceful response to one of the major problems facing Europe today.