An official European Union report issued on February 20 revealed that one in six people in the EU live below national poverty thresholds. The February 21 British Morning Star reported that according to the European Commission's social inclusion report 10% of people in the EU — one of the wealthiest regions in the world — live in households in which no-one has a job.
According to the report, 9-10% of people in Sweden and the Czech Republic live below the poverty threshold; the figure rises to 21% in Lithuania and Poland. The report noted that the unemployment rate among young people stands at 40%. Referring to the "Lisbon Strategy", an EU development plan launched by the European Council in 2000, Fintan Farrell, the director of the European Anti-Poverty Network, commented to the Star: "Seven years after Lisbon, the level and intensity of poverty and inequality has increased in most countries."
Meanwhile, European banks have been announcing record profits. The same issue of the Star reported that on February 20 Barclays Bank announced a record profit of £7 billion (roughly A$17 billion), an increase of 35% on the previous year.
The February 21 British Guardian reported that Alliance and Leicester, Britain's eighth-largest bank, reported profits of £585 million, an increase of 7% on last year. According to the Guardian, the bank slashed 350 jobs in 2006 as part of an internal restructure and plans further job cuts. The paper also reported that the Northern Rock bank reported a 16% rise in profits to £588 million in 2006; Bradford & Bingley raked in £336 million, a 7% increase. A number of major banks, including Lloyds TSB, HBOS, HSBC, and the Royal Bank of Scotland, are due to report on their 2006 performance in the next few weeks, and large increases in profits for all of them are predicted.
"Just because Barclays generates big and rising profits does not mean it is ripping us off", BBC business editor Robert Peston assured people in a February 21 article.