EU jobs ministers hold a video-conference amid forecasts that unemployment in the 27-nation bloc could double due to COVID-19 pandemic. Young adults are particularly vulnerable in this regard, according to economists.

Even before the coronavirus arrived youth unemployment was out of control in several EU countries, particularly in Greece, Spain and Italy where it was running at 30 percent. EU employment and social affairs ministers have just concluded a videoconference with their counterpart in the European Commission.

US consulting firm McKinsey forecasts that 59 million jobs are at risk in the EU and unemployment could almost double this year. EU nations are pumping huge amounts of money into their health systems but the reality is most of the governments cannot afford to.

An international online fundraising conference, coordinated by the European Commission, has raised more than seven billion euro for research into COVID-19 treatments and vaccines. The US did not take part in the event. There was plenty of veiled criticism targeting Donald Trump’s unilateral approach, even from some of his closest allies.

Communications ministers met on Tuesday and agreed that the idea of coronavirus contact tracing in the EU using mobile phone applications must be introduced in a coordinated manner across the bloc. If you have recovered from the coronavirus are you immune? That question has been raised in the European Parliament with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, better known as ECDC.

Legislators are applying increasing pressure on EU authorities to try and explain why there is such a discrepancy between member states in terms of the number of infections versus deaths.

For example, Germany has triple the number of confirmed cases compared to Belgium and yet Belgium has approximately 1000 more deaths than Germany. It could be to do with testing capacity or perhaps the quality of healthcare systems.

SOURCE: PRESS TV