virus at least when it comes to the european union special reportorially being the shooter now joins me from brussels levey thanks so much for coming on i mean the e.u. is in the news for nearly destroying the good friday agreement for a vaccination war your report suggesting that well what's called the often the greatest capitalist project in history is not fit for purpose how did you arrive at that conclusion. but essentially my report tries to show that the e.u. is not willing crits to comment on beauty because it has organized competition between the member states in matters in the area of wages and and social contributions for years we refer to this as to school dumping in social them and also because it imposes on member states very tights macroeconomy street jackets in order to avoid macroeconomy imbalances across the e.u. this makes it very difficult for states to spend money on social investment at the

risk of increasing their public that until today is a unique opportunity to really rethink these issues and perhaps better recruit the youth to it to alleviate poverty within its borders again to the macroeconomic pressures by virtue of the euro arguably in a 2nd but you think there is recognition of what you just said in that as you say in the report there is no target anymore for poverty reduction in the 2020 body target of 20000000 was missed by 8700000 men women and children in the. indeed so in 2010 your 2020 strategy had been announced and the objective was to reduce poverty by 20000000 people by 2020 this time it was entirely missed and i think it has been traumatizing europe in this issue makers who do not want to commit to a new targets which they feel it may be difficult to reach setting targets mean

excepting accountability for results and this is something which is difficult to obtain i believe we can do better i believe the e.u. should set targets to guide to member states but especially to better support member states in initiating this targets and that means fighting the current unhealthy competition between states who because they want to be competitive into it are not making the fight against poverty a priority in their domestic policies. you know the you always defend itself as being a whole regardless of the criticism but i mean one might ask you after reading this report isn't the point of neoliberalism meritocracy that some states have more poor people and others have richer people isn't that competition baked in to the whole european union project well there is a very strong tendency since at least 30 years to basically blame poverty

young on the people who are the victims of quality by emphasizing that they should seek to be better qualified that they should be more active in the search will implement and they made the wrong choices in life and should be them blame themselves for their condition but that is simply not realistic we've actually seen many people who cannot find work despite their efforts because of the difficulties of reconciling family with with with work life because of their health problems because they do not have access to proper order to. issues and let us not forget that a large number of people but with young children children crew have committed no crime but who are inflicted this lifelong sentence of having to bear with the consequences of its you which as we know should be a handicap to them for their adult lives and that is simply unacceptable almost one

quarter of children in the e.u. are born in a family that is at risk of poverty and that really is is extremely problematic for their future because of the stress teacher and because of the difficulty state it will have in elite or lives to be productive adults and of course now their schools are closed because of coronavirus what do you think as special robin to will be the generational damage of as you put it 19400000 children living in poverty b. i mean when it just me a mental degradation of those children or will they give rise to anger. well one impact of the crisis and the closure of many schools across the e.u. is that children from depended on school meals programs in order to have at least one adequate meal but they do not have access to this anymore and it is knots phenomenon limited to developing countries the dependence of children on school

meals it actually is benefiting many children across europe in the u.k. and in the $27.00 countries and it is indeed going to have a severe impact moreover many households are not connected to the internet and therefore the shifting of courses online will increase the gap between the children whose parents can afford good access to internet and the others who do not have such access and and will basically increase the rates of drop out from schools like me should be worried about the consequences of the current situation well much over the you know but a so-called mainstream me here in britain characterize jeremy corbyn the former labor leaders plans for broadband to be broadband communism the greater availability of government funded or banned internet you think it is crucial for the european union. it is increasingly crucial to ensure

access to to treat a net for households many social benefits are now essentially accessible only by filling in forms online and for families who either have no internet access or are not trained to to fill in these forms it can be cheaper batek we have many examples of social benefits never being claimed by people because of their digital illiteracy because they do not know how to fill in these forms and i think it's a very serious problem we should of course digitalize further improve access to internet which we should also be think the idea that digitalization of social social services will actually benefit everyone many people because they are you know older persons or because they are not used to using the computer and may not be able to actually access social services by those means well you mention mental

health you didn't say whether they're going to rise up in all european capitals when they reach their teens but what about health indicators that you expect stunted growth and those kind of indicators given what you just said about who take . it is too early to say what the long term health consequences will be but clearly the years during which are children grew up and and become the dogs since are absolutely vital for the training of the mind and for the ability to better socialize so i fear that we're producing a generation of. undefeated individuals if you wish who who will be much less actually is it social contacts and interactions and it's fine if they have family support but if they are live by themselves and if their family has new strong social networks and family networks to to to fall back on it maybe should be

problematic now i know there was a war the e.u. is involved in yugoslavia in the ninety's millions killed injured in displacement in the e.u. might reply to your report by say ok many of the things about the extreme poverty may be correct but that's the price we have to pay for peace in your since world war 2. look what is really disturbing to me is that we looked at the figures of social investment over the past 1015 years investment in education in inherent in early childhood support and and other such investments in people and those investments have been declining systematically since 2009 despite there being overall economic progress that apparently has not been a concern for e.u. governments and so i mean the question the proteins they set for themselves i am

concerned that the spending on those social investments i mentioned in person to just the g.d.p. have been declining over the years and the reason for this is economy the stereotype this is now of the don't see that we should repeat don't bend rethink significantly and we should now invest in people after all of investing in health care education early childhood is the best investment one can make and i really don't understand the protests as they have been said over the past few years was you know the governments of europe say what is important has been bailing out bankers the financialization of economies and also the fact is that there are pouring money into social services albeit outsourced privatized ones in and you must be aware as well and i'm sure you are aware a special report that many will say how do you arrive at these figures and relative

poverty even mean anything you'll note that the right wing press often says we should just retreat to absolute poverty rather than relative poverty these people are not really poor. well what is true is that it's the 21 percent of the european population that is at risk of poverty and or social exclusion including people who are relatively poor because they make less than 60 percent of the of the average income of just just to make just one year of that one in far more than one in 5 your people in the european union you're saying yes 21 percent more than one in 5 europeans are at risk of poverty now this includes the measure of monetary policy which is indeed relative poverty it's below 60 percent of the median income but that matters to people if you ask people about how they experience poverty it was speaking about how they are unable to be true to live decent lives in which they

can compare themselves with you know the average person around them and if they cannot afford decent housing decent education if they must are working in more than one job in order to make a decent standard of living this is just unacceptable not only do we have one european out of 5 that is at risk of poverty but you also have. 90 percent of the working population and is poor and the phenomenon of working poor has grown across all the e.u. because we try to create jobs the poor quality jobs under bade 0 hour jobs many jobs as they're called in germany and that is an extremely troubling development yeah i want to explore the coal face of work in a 2nd but do you have believe that this background has contributed to your. being the worst continent in the world to respond to her own of our. well i wouldn't say

it's been the worst continent into were we have countries such as the us brazil or others whose performance is abysmal really but is true that he has its services across europe have been tragic by 10 years of austerity measures imposed upon them and we had until recently the recommendations addressed to the e.u. member states to reduce the costs of health care and that's has been tragic the the social security systems and health care systems and we now discover that social resilience was neglected over the years in the name of cost effectiveness and that is partly the result of this is macroeconomic constraints that states have been imposed. as i say e.u. governments the european central bank they will say they needed to bail out banks as a priority and now there will be saying to you there's

a 750000000000 euro euro recovery fund to help achieve. 50 percent poverty reduction. well. that's an important initiative but each are not be focused on the reduction of quality at all in fact the e.u. has deployed a series of instruments under the next generation e.u. under the framework if you wish and bought the investments will be for the greening of the economy about 37 percent of becoming a business facility should be take it to that and 20 percent should go to digitalisation of the economy but there's no target sets for investments in in social cohesion and therefore we must hope that the member states will make this a priority in the national plans they submit to receive funding from the e.u. but there's no real way to measure the impact on public on the reduction of

inequalities no plan for social cohesion i don't know what. arguably a progressive government then latin america or africa or southeast asia would say about that eliminate issue drug stop you there more from the un special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights after this break. that the volatility is near those in a village in chile or. they get just be suitably. left with their supposed on here with us that's the way that. you know none of us could be in a bowl episodes didn't go to see kesh q you're the shit i think it's near there in

your posts where you could be name must of missed it not what's it worth spit i did it was more sinister experiment done in there on the boat if they clearly will trim the. they say oh lord show us the stress of school schumann's for you to post your top up by some sort of movement of willows russell vulnerable current actual story list so there we are but what is. welcome back i'm still here with the un special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights innovative shooter why do you say in your report you were impressed with the dedication of all those you met. as regards these issues when there's not even

a plan about social cohesion i presume that's before cope and let alone what happens now and no i think many people in the european is to shoes would like. to be better equipped to face the emergency we have facing today and to respond better but they don't have the means to do so and part of this is because of the inability for the e.u. to harmonize taxation across the e.u. it requires unanimity in it and some small states benefit from the current condition between states they have to compete since either it's you legislate on on wages and as a result we see these working poor grew as a proportion of the working population but actually they do they do legislate on wages they legislate arguably for low wages isn't about the whole point i mean why am i asking about why you were impressed by these e.u. figures is what is the role of techno crossly. within your own exchange poverty i

mean if you look at these people like god the european central bank was well known for having been suspected of fraud that she denies euchre accused of money laundering i mean isn't it obvious that you have these people at the top of the european who don't really care about your remit you know i think the reality is that the report is about the conditions under which the institutions work and i'm not of course passing any judgement on particular individuals but what is clear is that the e.u. has been. basically organizing itself to stimulate growth by trying to increase competition and competitiveness across the european economy without much regard frankly for the socially mats and we know this much concern for those who may be left out from the general economic progress and growth has been pursued i would say at all expense by trade liberalization by deregulation

of labor markets by organizing fiscal and social competition between the member states and polity has been basically neglected you see the british people arguably could see a way out of the situation because they weren't members of the yoro all the things you just mentioned there the euro is arguably the key focus of the european union and keeping that stability of the currency so all these regional variations how possibly can you envisage a reduction in poland using macro economics when the euro must be kept stable and therefore him stable for investors which require her to well demand true economy policy conversions constraints of course relate primarily to the $99.00 member states who are parts of the single currency the euro but not only then and moreover

some states such as bug area and remain which have very low wages allowing their economies to be attractive to some investors in the labor intensive segments of the production chain they fear that if they raise wages of workers they will be less competitive so and you know they're much wealthier countries wages are difficult to raise because the employers threaten to reorganize in in in countries where the wages are lower and it is unfortunately making it very. it's good for unions to bargain in the strong body position with employers in order to ensure that wages increase with productivity gains and i'm very concerned that at the rate of unionization are going down that the bargaining power of unions is weak sure because of this threats of employers to to outsource production and that this is inherent in the construct of the e.u.

which is organizing this competition between understates hasn't been attempts right from the beginning of the european union project to limit the power of trade unions and work in solidarity in favor of technocrats in brussels avallone the so-called 0 hours contract. that's about international often raised in the silicon valley right at the beginning you'll know from the founders of the european union the limitations the deliberate limiting of union power as part of the project well against the project was that the economy would be under the supervision of the the e use compazine as you call it the european commission in particular and that the social dimension should be left to the member states who should be free to develop social policies the problem is you cannot meet that distinction it is not a watertight distinction you can trace and of course the economy choice is done and

you can level effect your mistakes to conduct social policies at domestic level in particular because to finance or protection schemes you need to have progressive taxation which you cannot afford to have if you're competing across the e.u. with other member states so we have to rethink the construct and that is why in my report i call for rethinking those choices now as a crisis has shown the fragility of the european integration because as we've built i'm sure. i've met a few of the lobbyists of multinationals in brussels as regards salary increases what do you think they would think of your report on extreme poverty the many actors who fear of change because the benefit from the current system and obviously the corporations that are best equipped to organize production across different jurisdictions and just to have address issues compete with one another. on the

simple prescience for best at avoiding taxes limiting their tax liability by declaring profits interests issues that have the lowest corporate income tax rates and unfortunately the big players have a major insurance inserting the the political agenda and influencing critical decision making so boss of the response to the crisis is true and be aware of these easy 2 points that these powerful actors control and to overcome them or circumvent it i think it's really important that you have them and if they haven't they have been overcome and the report talks about generational as we talk about generational poverty we're talking about more than one in 5 now at risk what is the limiting factor here obviously there's a limiting factor here in britain when the british people have had enough of the lack of democracy the lack of openness as far as bricks and tears and those who voted bricks and fell what is

a limiting factor here for other countries i know countries in the euro a previously tried to effect change and to no avail but do you believe this will lead to other countries seeking to leave just just because of social instability and civil disobedience no i don't think so and in fact we do not see in other countries. the parties that are that had proposed to leave that you gaining any. new voices as a result of the current crisis when there is. is is a rethinking of how the e.u. is developing but i mean what evidence do you have that there are voices within the european union always younger merkel now leaving and even more neo liberal voices arguably in berlin may emerge what what evidence have you got that people are taking on board your suggestions and your. issues in your report seriously at all well there is a rethinking on grain and votes which is called the european semester process which

is basically a process by which the budgets of the member states are being screened by the european commission and member states are given recommendations as to how to improve macroeconomic policy conversions that'll be thought the stability and growth pact that is this economy street jacket it pulls on states in order to ensure that the big the euro the currency share is projected is also be rethought so there is now a unique opportunity to rethink choices meet back in the 1980s in 1900 that have truly been to fragile i social protection systems across the e.u. well we'll be monitoring this rethinking as you as you call it on this show i mean like we were covering the g.l.a. john protests with the thousands injured in you know a rich country like france i'm just going to finally end on the existential threat to the planet i mean anyone reading this report how on earth given the level of

poverty you describe in the e.u. cope with the migration crisis that will result from climate catastrophe in less than a decade according to something done any studies that show that in fact migration is an opportunity that we can seize provided we provide those arriving in europe with proper training access to services by which they can learn the language and be and be trained for for jobs for which we need. to hire people they can be a benefits to europe. economy and for demographic reasons and for the sustainability of our pension schemes we need this younger generation of migrants to be part of the economy and it's much more fruitful to have them arrive and be well integrated by providing the services they need to the access to education and jobs we'll tell you think that you think it might be you know you might be sorry to

interrupt you think it might be possible and i should say the pension schemes are often invested in the fossil fuel companies that are credited with climate change. well what i was referring to is the fact that we are an aging population in europe and that the arrival of younger migrants who for the most part to will join the active population it can be beneficial to in the short term certainly to the european economy and we should welcome this as an opportunity we should see this as not only an ethical duty to welcome those of freeing of persecution or of conflicts in in other countries but also see that if they are well integrated in jenin be beneficial to european economy and i really don't think it's a threat to european identity your or that said it's it's a wave of migrants we cannot cope with and we are much fewer my friends than countries such as lebanon for example or turkey yeah of course i believe the

culture or the one of just finally one quick one universal basic income you think any chance there's any chance of that being installed in your liberal european union when it comes to extreme poverty where the crisis has led if your country's to improve their minimum income schemes and a country such as spain for example has for the 1st time adopted such a unify this team across the country so there is a debate going on i believe it's particularly going to be a priority for those 8 between $18.20 tragedies old crew need to be supportive as they seek to study as they search for their 1st. professional opportunities we need to support them to make sure that their choices are not constrained by being in immaterial in the in this reality i regret for example that in france we have a. disadvantage x e a t which is a minimum income scheme that does not benefit the young generation between 18 and

25 years of age that is exactly the opposite of what we should do we should see. thank you for the creation and i believe that universal income scheme for that group at least would be highly beneficial. thank you that's it for the show will be back on monday in the other side after our interview with iconic palestinian leader only and a look at both michael wolff he's a potential climate catastrophe after the 1st couple of weeks of the bidens ministration with levi sanders son of 2020 democratic presidential candidate bernie sanders which will then join the i'm going to twitter facebook instagram telegram and so i'm glad i don't forget to subscribe to the channel and you tube and click the bell like going to turn notifications on so you never miss me.

but i'm going to learn how to know they're not a lot out of love the idea that i'm not out of the mind of the money that they let me. this was a good time to. try to move. plus little or nothing definitely not why not. why it generated the all the people we believe will be here. bottom of my case i don't want the anybody or any other moment to tell them about how do a little macuser is a little on the i can not be old enough to want the people i don't want to put out a lot more cutting and i don't know them other bloodletting.

the headlines this saturday more vaccine woes for europe but this time it's the french president who's criticised for failing to secure a french vaccine next head to the u.k. as his country struggles to get supplies. it is a shame for us we have missed a good chance in france it's a little bit weird but the priority given to the united kingdom england is better managed because it has been liberated from the european union while the government and your old are failing at everything. desperate times call for desperate measures the mayor in italian town issues in order banning residents from getting sick to draw attention to the fact they have to. go to the now i did it as a provocation my ruling can hardly be enforced i mean that getting sick or not it is not down to one.