EUROPE'S CRUMBLING SOCIAL NETWORK

▪ 1998

by Birna Helgadottir The European welfare state suffered a year of crisis in 1997. In the years after World War II, generations of Europeans had grown accustomed to levels of social protection that were generous and comprehensive compared with, for example, the United States or Asia. In recent years, however, various factors had sent welfare budgets shooting upward to unsustainable heights. For example, the increasing globalization of the world economy was causing Europe to face intense competition from cheaper job markets. Unemployment reached record levels—almost 21 million in 1994 in the European countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; consequently, more people in those countries were relying on state handouts than were working for wages. People were living longer, and so governments had to pay out more pensions, and an aging population put an increasing strain on government health services. (For affected European countries,see Map—> .)

      In Eastern Europe, meanwhile, people continued to struggle with the harsh realities of postcommunism. From the primitive rural society of Albania to the relatively evolved economies of the Baltic nations (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania), the former regimes had been oppressive, but most had provided basic welfare safety nets. As those countries transformed their economies according to free-market principles, they also suffered a sharp fall in social security benefits and health standards, a widening wealth gap, and a rise in organized crime. In Romania, for example, living standards were found to be 20% lower in 1997 than they were in 1990.

      Perhaps nowhere were the contrasts between current privations and former security so marked as in Sweden—the country that is often called the cradle of the welfare state. The Swedish crisis began in the recession of the early 1990s, which forced the government to embark on a series of severe cuts in public spending. In 1997 the economy was at last showing signs of recovery, but years of austerity had taken their toll. A survey early in the year by the consumer office at the nation's second largest city, Göteborg, showed that half its households were living on or below the poverty line and 6% could not afford to visit a physician. The Swedish welfare system is two-tiered: the national government provides social insurance and benefits, whereas regional authorities hand out allowances that are meant to ensure that everyone has enough to live decently. These allowances were originally intended as emergency payments, but by 1997 they had become a long-term source of income for many households. Consequently, municipalities became so financially stretched that they imposed rigorous checks on claimants, and only the most determined received payments. A national board of health and welfare report estimated that 150,000 households entitled to benefits received nothing. Religious charities such as the Salvation Army were left to pick up the pieces; in Stockholm, a city of just over 1.5 million, the City Mission charity dealt with 2,500 families during the year, while the Salvation Army day centre received 11,250 visitors and handed out 4,500 parcels of food and clothing.

      Single-income earners, single parents, and pensioners were particularly hard hit by the cuts. In the summer of 1997, Stockholm had its bid to serve as host of the 2004 Olympic Games effectively sabotaged by a bombing campaign carried out by an unlikely terrorist group called We Who Built Sweden. The group was believed to be made up of disaffected pensioners whose bitterness over welfare cuts expressed itself in an agenda of racism and violence. Elsewhere in Europe, countries that had lined up to join the first wave of the single European currency, scheduled for introduction in 1999, found themselves having to slash public spending in order to become members of the currency group. The rules for joining the economic and monetary union (EMU), known as the convergence criteria, were tough; they included a budget deficit of no more than 3% of gross domestic product and low rates of inflation. Most prospective members—including France, Germany, and, particularly, Italy—were struggling to meet these requirements. Some economists and social scientists voiced their doubts over the wisdom of the economic policies being imposed in order to meet the convergence criteria. They argued that tight fiscal restraint, which curbed economic growth, was not what was needed at a time when there were 20 million people unemployed in the European Union and an estimated 50 million living in poverty. Christopher Allsopp, editor of the Oxford Review of Economic Policy and a member of the Court of the Bank of England, wrote in the October edition of New College News: "Viewed dispassionately, the process looks like a large scale system failure . . . public perceptions naturally associate fiscal cuts with unemployment and blame the Maastricht process and moves towards currency union for the mess that Europe is in."

      In May thousands of trade union members from across the continent marched in Brussels, headquarters of the European Union, on the European Day for Employment to support increased rights for workers. The unions accused the EU of concentrating too much on benefits to the business sector rather than on the private citizen. In France the centre-right government, led by Prime Minister Alain Juppé, became increasingly unpopular as it attempted to introduce harsh cuts needed to tackle a $10 billion deficit in the state social security fund. In the weeks before the general election in May and June, there were persistent strikes and public protests. State employees, from teachers to air traffic controllers, walked out of their jobs and onto the streets. Even the medical profession took part, with doctors refusing to answer emergency calls during the strikes. France's new Socialist government led by Lionel Jospin (see BIOGRAPHIES) put increased emphasis on job creation and protection of workers rights, but Jospin's government was also forced to make cuts to the welfare budget. Within a month of the election, the protesters were back on the streets as family groups gathered outside the National Assembly in Paris to show their outrage over the government's plans to scrap universal child benefits.

      In October the Italian centre-left government fell when the Communist Refoundation Party, which held the balance of power in the Chamber of Deputies, refused to support proposed budget cuts. In order to meet EMU requirements, Prime Minister Romano Prodi needed to overhaul the welfare system, and, in what he called "a budget for Europe," he announced $3 billion of public spending cuts. Those who were to bear the brunt of the cuts were the so-called baby pensioners; under the previous system workers had been entitled to state pensions after a certain number of years of employment, so those who had started work at the old school-leaving age of 14 could retire as young as 50. In November, after four months of negotiations, Italy's trade unions accepted a government plan to raise the minimum retirement age to 55 in 1999 and 57 in 2002.

      Germany was a country whose industrial power had in the past been supported by excellent labour relations. The welfare crisis ended that. The government and employers insisted that mass unemployment needed to be addressed by cutting labour costs, but unions and employees fought to maintain benefits. Many industries, such as the automobile, chemical, and engineering sectors, were hit by mass strikes, which cost companies such as Daimler-Benz and Ford hundreds of millions of dollars. Late in November thousands of students marched through Bonn in a demonstration protesting the underfinancing of Germany's colleges and universities that had resulted in overcrowding and cuts in teaching staffs. Thousands more boycotted classes throughout the country.

      Although the problem was perhaps most acute in those countries planning early entry into the EMU, nearly every European government faced some kind of public-spending dilemma. In Britain the outgoing Conservative government had spent many years chipping away at the welfare system. Whereas living standards as a whole had increased, there was increased inequality of wealth; in 1997, 13.7 million people were estimated to be living below the poverty line, compared with 5 million in 1979. The criteria for receiving money from the government were made much more rigorous, and the number of people who were being rejected for benefits had risen from 113,000 to 317,000 a year in the past three years.

      Even with these cuts, however, Britain's welfare system was continuing to cost the country approximately $144 billion a year. The centre-left Labour Party, elected with a large majority in May after 18 years in opposition, may have presented a more compassionate face to the voters, but it soon showed itself equally intent on slimming down the welfare budget. The new government said it would adhere to plans devised by the previous regime to make $800 million worth of welfare cuts and also announced various "welfare-to-work" schemes, such as one that would move single parents back into the job market as soon as their children had reached school age.

      No government, however, had found a real solution to the welfare crisis. In a report to the Council of Europe in June, Ann Cathrine Haglund, special adviser to the UN secretary-general, wrote, "Western European countries have reacted to [recession and unemployment] by notably adapting their social protection to make it more restrictive. The welfare state has had increasing difficulty in combating poverty and exclusion. Employment policies have had little success. Most countries are looking for new ideas and seem to have objective difficulties in tackling the situation and finding solutions at the national level."

Birna Helgadottir is an editor on the staff of The European, London.

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