EUROZONE CRISIS : COMMISSION DENIES SEEKING DECLINE IN LIVING STANDARDS.

• Position: Brief article

The European Commission has categorically denied accusations by trade unionists that it is seeking a decline in living standards in bailed-out nations. A spokesman for Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said, on 17 January, "The alternative is clear - either we continue with things as they are, with a loss of competitiveness and growth [...] or we have the political courage to put in place the structural reforms that will keep Europe from having to confront a decade of lost growth". The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) alleged last week in a letter to Rehn that Commission officials in Greece and Ireland are forcing lower wages and pensions on the population as essential conditions for those governments to access multi-billion euro rescue loans from the bloc and the International Monetary Fund. ETUC General Secretary John Monks has likened the terms of the loans to the 1919 Versailles Treaty - the peace agreement that ended the First...