now it doesn t seem like you have real solutions. well, i wouldn t agree at all to what you just said. first of all, this week we had positive news on the labour market in spain in august. we have recovered more or less the employment that had been lost due to covid, and, in particular, youth unemployment figures are lower than what they were pre covid. moreover, we have a recovery plan which includes important structural reforms and investments with a top priority, which is indeed to reduce unemployment, to reduce youth unemployment, and to have a stronger and more sustainable growth going forward. interesting that you talk about the reforms now. spain, of course, like all eu countries, will qualify and is qualifying for major funds, recovery funds, from brussels as a result of the coordinated response to the covid crisis. i think you re entitled to about 140 billion euros worth of which you ve said
with a pinch of salt, because, frankly, structural unemployment, particularly for the young, is a problem that predates covid, covid made worse, and there s no sign that you re really able to tackle it. well, thank you very much for pointing that out, because unemployment and youth unemployment is the number one problem that we ve been trying to tackle. unfortunately, you know, the crisis has obviously halted any progress on that. my point is that right now it doesn t seem like you have real solutions. well, i wouldn t agree at all to what you just said. first of all, this week we had positive news on the labour market in spain in august. we have recovered more or less the employment that had been lost due to covid, and, in particular, youth unemployment figures are lower than what they were pre covid. moreover, we have a recovery plan which includes important structural reforms and investments with a top priority, which is indeed to reduce unemployment, to reduce youth unemployment, a
the eu project looked broken on covid. i m not aware of those polls, and i don t know when that polling, the exercise the underlying data, was gathered. that doesn t respond at all. doesn t reflect at all what i read in the media, what i sense in citizens, and particularly not in spain. i think the european response to this crisis, which has been very challenging on the health front and on the economic and financialfront, has been very different to previous crises of a very different nature. this is an unprecedented situation and generally citizens see that we have been able to step up our vaccination rhythm. in spain, we reached 70% of the population this week, which has been an important milestone, i think. and generally on the economic and financialfront, we have taken decisions in a fast and effective manner. well, why did spain have the deepest contraction last year in all of the european union,
which is not going to stop, which is due to many different reasons and is taking place throughout the whole world. let me take a different sort of area of difficulty and challenge for the eu, and again, ask about coherence and unity. it s something which, as economics minister in spain, you ve had to deal very closely with. that is the response to the covid i9 pandemic. do you believe that europe s citizens have seen in the european union, a truly sort of urgent, coordinated, efficient response to the covid challenge? i m very happy to respond, yes. see, surveys suggest that, actually, most europeans don t see it that way. there was a major survey done by the european council on foreign relations. it found what they described as a stuttering eu vaccine roll out had dealt a blow to public confidence in the union s capabilities. and that included a 52% result in spain, saying that they felt
surge testing and a push to get people vaccinated in england s covid hotspots in the north west. it comes after a rise in cases of the delta variant first found in india. local leaders are now calling for more vaccines. the thing the government needs to do is also bring forward vaccine supplies in the high case areas, so over the two to three weeks, so over the next two to three weeks, have a surge vaccination programme. we ll be looking at whether there are adequate supplies of vaccine to step up the programme. also this lunchtime. the high court rules the government acted unlawfully over a covid contract worth half a million pounds given to a company run by friends of dominic cummings. no breakthrough, but no breakdown, after talks between the uk and the eu on northern ireland trade.