EC: Bulgaria among countries with highest poverty risk

Bulgaria falls in the category of the countries with the highest risk of poverty and social exclusion, according to a review Brussels conducted regarding social environment in EU member-states. After five years of economic crisis and a slide back into recession in 2012, the unemployment rate is at an almost 20-year high, household incomes are falling and the poverty risk is rising, particularly in Eastern and Central Europe, concluded Laszlo Andor, the European Commissioner responsible for employment . According to Andor, the report only highlights the growing divide between the North and the South of the Euro-zone. The gap between unemployment rates in the two regions was 3.5 points in 2000 before narrowing to a virtual zero in 2007, but then quickly jumped to 7.5% by 2011. Outside the currency bloc, the differences, though still growing, are less pronounced. This worrisome trend highlights the urgent need of finding more efficient ways of achieving macroeconomic stabilisation, Andor said. The authors of the report said the level of poverty risk and the capacity to avoid a falling standard of living vary wildly between different member-states. Some social groups such as young people, jobless women and single mothers are more vulnerable. According to Eurostat, over 26 million Europeans are out of work. The real gross disposable income per household fell from 2009 to 2011 in two-thirds of EU member-states, with the biggest decrease in Greece (17%), Spain (8%), Cyprus (7%), and Estonia and Ireland (5% each). This is in sharp contrast with the Scandinavian countries, Germany, Poland and France, where, thanks to generous social systems and stronger labour markets, incomes have continued to grow during the crisis.      

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