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Europe has spent hundreds of billions of euros rescuing its banks but may have lost an entire generation of young people in the process, the president of the European Parliament said.
Since the region's debt crisis erupted in Greece in late 2009, the European Union has created complex rescue mechanisms1 to prop2 up distressed3 countries and their shaky banking4 sectors5, setting aside a total of 700 billion euros.
But little has been done to tackle the devastating6 social impact of the crisis, with more than 26 million people unemployed7 across the EU, including one in every two young people in Greece, Spain and parts of Italy and Portugal.
That crippling level of unemployment has led to protests and outbreaks of violence across southern Europe, raising the threat of full-scale social breakdown8, including rising crime and anti-immigrant attacks that can further rattle9 unstable10 governments.
"We saved the banks but are running the risk of losing a generation," said Martin Schulz, a German socialist11 who has led the European Parliament, the EU's only directly elected institution, since January last year.
"One of the biggest threats to the European Union is that people entirely12 lose their confidence in the capacity of the EU to solve their problems. And if the younger generation is losing trust, then in my eyes the European Union is in real danger," he told the reporters in an interview.
Figures released last week showed 57 percent of Greeks aged13 15 to 24 are out of work, and a similar scourge14 is tearing apart the fabric15 of Spain, where some university graduates in their 30s have never had a job.
European Union heads of state and government will discuss the fallout from the debt crisis at a summit on March 14-15.
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1 mechanisms | |
n.机械( mechanism的名词复数 );机械装置;[生物学] 机制;机械作用 | |
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2 prop | |
vt.支撑;n.支柱,支撑物;支持者,靠山 | |
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3 distressed | |
痛苦的 | |
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4 banking | |
n.银行业,银行学,金融业 | |
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5 sectors | |
n.部门( sector的名词复数 );领域;防御地区;扇形 | |
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6 devastating | |
adj.毁灭性的,令人震惊的,强有力的 | |
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7 unemployed | |
adj.失业的,没有工作的;未动用的,闲置的 | |
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8 breakdown | |
n.垮,衰竭;损坏,故障,倒塌 | |
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9 rattle | |
v.飞奔,碰响;激怒;n.碰撞声;拨浪鼓 | |
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10 unstable | |
adj.不稳定的,易变的 | |
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11 socialist | |
n.社会主义者;adj.社会主义的 | |
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12 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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13 aged | |
adj.年老的,陈年的 | |
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14 scourge | |
n.灾难,祸害;v.蹂躏 | |
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15 fabric | |
n.织物,织品,布;构造,结构,组织 | |
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16 stabilize | |
vt.(使)稳定,使稳固,使稳定平衡;vi.稳定 | |
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