Una aproximación al debate sobre la prestación por desempleo europea

The first Great Repression of the twenty-first century, which collapsed the most important economies in the world since 2007 to 2013, has produced a number of important effects, including high unemployment rates. In the case of the EU and the Eurozone, some particular difficulties had to be overcome, what made the crisis even deeper. The so-called «Eurozone crisis» arrived when several countries assumed private debts from their bail outed banks. Hence, it started the second part of the depression characterized by the difficulties of these states to repay or refinance their own sovereign debt. The special state of development of the Eurozone contributed to reinforce the crisis, because some structures hadn’t been developed and the traditional national tools linked to the monetary policy were no more available. This produced a new phase within the recession, in which the so-called austerity measures played a central role. Without other alternatives and in exchange of financial help, these European countries were forced to reduce their budget deficits severely. The final result was more crisis, higher unemployment and an increasing anti-Europeism feeling all over Europe. In this context, the proposal of European unemployment benefit raised. On the one hand, it would act as an automatic stabilizer, that is, giving the Eurozone those kinds of macroeconomic policies to fight against the effects of crisis whose lack reinforced it. On the other hand, it would permit to show the human face of the European economic governance, revitalising the social spirit of the European project. This paper aims to give a first approach to the basic characteristics of this proposal. It will be divided as follows. Firstly, the economic background of the proposal will be explained in order to highlight what kind of objectives are followed. Second, the basic lines of the different alternatives will be analysed. Finally, some conclusions will be delivered.Este artículo forma parte del proyecto de investigación «Un derecho del trabajo para la recuperación: competitividad empresarial y cohesión social» (DER2015-64676-C2-2-P)