Cap ‘sad’ about EU’s failure to act on social disparities
Social Democratic (SPÖ) whip Josef Cap has appealed to European Union (EU) leaders to take action to improve the EUs reputation.Cap said in parliament yesterday (Weds) that many people lacked trust in the EU since many political leaders had failed to draw the right conclusions from the economic downturn.”The EU needs to face important questions from today. Everyone acts as he did before the crisis and the people have to pay the bill,” he claimedCap said the EU needed to make a decision about what to do with “the billion of Euros of illegal money bunkered in Switzerland”. He added that political leaders had to stop the “poor from becoming poorer and the few rich from becoming richer”.He said: “It fills me with sadness that there has been no progress on the EU level on that issue.”Meanwhile, Johannes Hahn, the new EU commissioner for regional policy, has revealed plans for information events across Austria to improve the EUs image in the country.The former Peoples Party (ÖVP) science minister, who took office as EU commissioner last month, said: “The EU must become more approachable for Austrians.”He also announced plans for an initiative to make Austrians more aware of projects subsidised by the EU through better labeling of sites where EU money had been invested.Hahn explained his plan was to spend 1.46 billion Euros on projects in Austria until 2013.Hahns announcements followed research by pollster IMAS, the results of which showed that more than 71 per cent of Austrians had little or no interest in politics.