‘EU saved the banks but runs risk of losing a generation’

Europe has spent hundreds of billions of euro rescuing its banks, but may have lost an entire generation of young people in the process, the president of the European Parliament said.

Since the region’s debt crisis erupted in Greece in late 2009, the EU has created complex rescue mechanisms to prop up distressed countries and their shaky banking sectors, setting aside a total of €700bn.

But little has been done to tackle the devastating social impact of the crisis, with more than 26m people unemployed across the EU, including one in every two young people in Greece, Spain and parts of Italy and Portugal.