"It is clear that Danish presidency promises to bring back growth and jobs to Europe were not fulfilled either for the short or long term - quite the contrary" GUE/NGL MEP Søren Søndergaard said in a stock-taking debate on Denmark's presidency in the European Parliament this morning.

He evoked unemployment figures released yesterday which are a "human catastrophe". "Never in the history of Europe have there been so many unemployed" he said, before laying the blame squarely at the presidency's feet for "following the EU's cut-back dictates from day one."

"We currently have 25 million unemployed in the EU and the growth and jobs package adopted by the Council last week had no concrete targets. This is simply not good enough."

"At the beginning of this presidency I said that people did not need any more EU dictated cuts, but jobs to improve our common welfare. I asked if the Danish presidency would be part of the problem or part of the solution - unfortunately it's clear that the Danish presidency was not part of the solution."

GUE/NGL Press Contacts:

Gay Kavanagh +32 473 84 23 20   

David Lundy +32 485 50 58 12

gabrielle.kavanagh@europarl.europa.eu  

david.lundy@europarl.europa.eu

European United Left / Nordic Green Left

European Parliamentary Group

www.guengl.eu