SOCIAL DISCRIMINATION WEATHER FORECAST – France

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our special discrimination weather forecast.
In today’s forecast we are going to talk about poverty and social exclusion around three axis : employment, education and housing.

First of all, let’s see what the European Union thinks about the problem of fighting poverty and social exclusion.

José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission blames the financial crisis for the rise in poverty. Because of this across Europe, for the first time in half a century, many citizens look to the future not with the hope of a better life but with uncertainty and even fear. Over one in five Europeans lives under the threat of poverty, including more than 25 million children.

Heran Van Rompuy, president of the European Council says that being poor is not just about lacking money, being poor is also about human dignity. Of the European Union’s 27 members, 13 have seen poverty and social exclusion increase between 2008 and 2011.

The European Parliament wants a European Union level minimum wage.
Isabelle Durant, vice-president of the European Parliament says poverty has many profiles :
gender (women), age dimension (children) young job seekers, retired people and minority social groups like migrants or the disabled.

Let’s welcome our first specialist, who will talk about the unemployment rate in Europe.

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Good evening, indeed, employment plays an important role in our fight against exclusion and even if it does not always prevent poverty, it is nevertheless a way into inclusion as having a job is seen by many as the best and most reliable way out of poverty.

Unfortunately, the euro zone unemployment rate has hit a record high of 11.8% with 18.8m people out of work according to Eurostat and youth employment is at a new high.

The unemployment weather forecast for July and September 2012 is indeed very dreary and dull especially over Spain which has reached an all time low of below zero and freezing conditions with 26.6% unemployment. The weather is becoming little brighter over France and Italy with 10.7% and 10.6% respectively but mainly cloudy with low temperatures. Warmer weather is moving into Germany with 5.4% and Austria. Austria will see more sunny spells and will hold the seasonal record of 4.5%.

Now let’s turn to youth unemployment. Not much change here I’m afraid conditions are still the most dramatic in Spain with arctic temperatures of 56.5% Italy will be under the influence of cold northerly temperatures and sleet and snow too with 37.1%. Moving on to France where there is a slight improvement, 27% ; so less wintry weather but still little hope of sunny spells. Germany and Austria again hold the record seasonal temperatures with 9% and 8.1%. So although some cloud, warmer weather is to be expected in these two countries as they are the countries with the lowest unemployment rates.

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Thank you, now let’s welcome our Low wage earners specialist.

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Good evening, according to Eurostat, in 2010, in the European Union, 17% of employees were low wage earners. France is the country with the lowest proportion of low wage earners. Thanks to the (SMIC) minimum salary

So now let’s take a look at the salaries of our countries : we notice that France has always had sunny and warm weather with only 6.1% of low wage earners thanks to a minimum wage. Widespread drizzle across Austria Italy and Spain where it is cloudy dull with 15% 12.4% and 14.7 % respectively. Arctic weather conditions with 22% of low wage earners in Germany. However, Germany becomes much brighter and warmer because it offers the highest hourly wages. Next come France and Austria with temperate 13 and 13.7€ an hour. Temperatures drop and chilly weather sets in covering Italy and above all Spain where they earn 11.9 and 9.4 € an hour respectively.

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Thank you, now, let’s welcome another specialist who will speak about the median gross hourly earnings by level of educational attainment.

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Well, Austria, Germany and Italy would indeed be the places to go if you have a good education and qualifications : plenty of warm sunny spells with 19.2 € an hour in Germany and 19.5 in Italy and Austria. France next with some brighter periods at 17.6€, then becoming chilly as we move towards Spain with 13.5€

Employees with low level of education are almost five times more likely to be low wage earners than those with high level.

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Thank you. Finally, let’s listen to our last specialists talk about housing in Europe.

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Good evening, here is our weather report on housing in our five countries.

Austria is sunny and warm with bright skies as public housing represents 21% of the total housing available and 53% of the rented housing available, enabling one family out of two to live comfortably, all over the country and not in specific areas.

France’s skies are little less clear with some unstable weather due to only 17% of public housing available. Most of which is in the outer cities and suburbs in high rise blocks of flats.
Even though a law was passed to force towns to build subsidized housing the temperatures dropped and will remain chilly as many towns refuse to build and prefer to pay a tax to the government instead.
There is no foreseeable change at the moment so the outlook is gloomy for home hunters.

Germany’s weather is quite temperate and stable thanks to rebuilding by the government after the second world war. This warm front remained stable until the 1960s when supply and demand were balanced .
Progressive colder rainier weather set in when the government started to privatize this housing but this spell was soon to be replaced by a rainbow as the housing was carefully controlled by strict laws protecting the occupiers and enabling low income occupiers to be housed.

Even if the warm weather in Italy is constant as 80% of the population are home owners it is chilly and cold for those of a low income whose salaries don’t enable them to buy a house or flat. The low income families live in privately owned rented flats. However an anticyclone is not far off as associations have launched co-operative housing which will blow away the cold chill felt by these low income households. Idea which was turned into a law by the Italian government.

Wintry weather has taken hold of Spain as it has the highest rate of owners (83%) who rent to the poorest families .Indeed these ice cold temperatures show that there is only 3% of subsidized housing, indeed there has never been a government policy on social housing. And with the recession set in an anticyclone will have difficulty bringing clear skies and warm weather in Spain for the moment.
However there is warm weather on the horizon thanks to a new plan put forward by the Rodríguez Zapatero government, aiming to make near a million homes available for public housing, relying both on new construction and refurbishment of unused houses.

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Thank you very much for listening to us. We hope the European Union will carry on fighting against exclusion.
This was … for LQLY weather forecast.