The economic governance package was today approved in the European Parliament by a majority of MEPs in spite of the disagreement and advises of EL and GUE/NGL deputies on these anti social and undemocratic measures that will only serve to increase the disparities between European countries.

"The economic governance package is the wrong answer to the economic crisis, while at the same time it signals a definite end to the European Union, as we know it. The 'European Semester' has only one objective: the abolition of collective agreements, the dismantling of public retirement systems and further privatizations," said warned Nikos Chountis (Greece).

" The model that has been adopted is one that will prevent growth in the EU because it is based on a strict control of debts and deficits at member state level whereas these should be put on a par with other issues such as job creation and sustainable economic and environmental growth. The aims of economic policy should be to solve peoples' not bankers' problems", MEP Miguel Portas (Portugal) affirmed.

This package has nothing to do with democracy and much less with a social and sustainable Europe; what the EU needs is an economic government that fights gaping economic and social imbalances," concluded German MEP Jürgen Klute.