The impact of the anti-crisis measures and the social and employment situation : Portugal ; study

For the European institutions, the "Great Recession" officially began in March 2008, when the word "crisis" first appeared in the Conclusions of the European Council (European Council, March 2008). In the four years since then, the European response to that crisis has not always been the same; an analysis of European Union documents reveals at least three distinct stages. In the first stage, from March to December 2008 (the "financial stage"), the main concern was the stability of the financial system. The second stage, from December 2008 to February 2010 (the "economic stage") was characterised by an attempt to avoid recession through (temporary) recourse to expansionary fiscal policy. The third stage, from February 2010 to the present day (the "fiscal stage") involves a shift in the focus of concern from economic recovery to the stability of the euro and from the euro area to efforts to regain recovery of "market confidence" by way of coordinated fiscal consolidation throughout the EU. In each of these stages, the European response de facto determined national policy. In Portugal, the series of "packages" of "anti-crisis" measures announced and, in part, implemented by governments at various stages of the crisis have followed European policies almost word for word2 . The aim of this report is to identify and summarise each of these packages and to assess their economic and social impact between the start of 2008 and the end of 2011.