All Wales Plaid MEP, Jill Evans, has today called for an increase in government spending to help boost the Welsh economy. With European leaders meeting to discuss the way forward for the Eurozone against a backdrop of a general strike in Brussels, the Plaid president warns against spending cuts.

Today’s meeting comes as new official figures from the Office for National Statistics show that for the last 3 months of 2011 UK economic activity shrank by 0.2%. The IMF has also cut its growth forecast for the UK for 2012 from 1.6% to 0.6%.

Jill Evans MEP said,

“It is clear that the spending cuts being adopted by both the UK Government and European leaders are not working. West Wales and the valleys already meet the criteria to receive the highest category of EU funding, meaning Wales is still one of the poorest regions in the EU. Further cuts will have a catastrophic effect on our country.

We must do everything we can to avoid a double-dip recession and the only way to do that is by boosting jobs and growth.

The situation is now very serious and unless we see investment we will be condemning an entire generation of young people in Wales to unemployment and economic stagnation. Wales is still struggling with the effects of the last recession and unemployment levels continue to be amongst the highest in the UK.

We cannot have a one-size-fits-all policy of austerity across the EU because it simply won’t work. Governments need to make investments in people and infrastructure which would be paid for by a strong and robust EU Cohesion policy focused on jobs.

Instead of handcuffing governments in the EU with austerity we need to make sure that European banks write down their debts. They need to be properly regulated so the people are never again asked to pay for the banks’ mistakes. A financial transaction tax is one way in which the banks could be made to pay their fair share in taxes. This would have the potential to generate billions to help boost the Welsh economy.

At today’s meeting European leaders, and the UK Prime Minister especially, must stop thinking about the needs of the bankers and put our people first.”

Ends.