Current Economics Issues in Western Europe
High Unemployment
As of late 2015, the unemployment rate of the French has grown by about 10.6% with the European Union's unemployment rate average at 9.3%. In most cases in Europe, the youth unemployment rate is higher than the population in France. France's youth unemployment rate was 24.7% in October 2015, putting it about 3% higher than the average of EU. With the high unemployment rates, it shows that a huge chuck of the population will not be able to participate in the wealth that was generated by the society together and that more social safety net will have to be put into place in order to help support the unemployed and their family. A cause to unemployment in France might be due to its labor's regulation. With the high unemployment rates, Western Europe's economy has suffer because less income is made and causes the economy to become slow.
Syrian Refugee
The Syrian refugee has been a major issue for Germany's economy in 2016. It has been a major issue because it was estimated that about 1 million Syrian refugees have come to Germany in 2015. This will have cost Germany a total minimum of $20 billion with accepting and housing all of the refugees. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, originally supported a policy that would allow every eligible refugee possible to be welcomed into Germany but as of mid-November, she decided to place a limit on the number of refugee that will be allowed to enter the country due to the recent terrorist attacks and protest. The cause of many Syrian refugee coming to Germany is due to the violent war outbreaks in their country and that they wish to start a new life and find a job. The effect of this on Western Europe is they are spending a lot of money financially to help aid the refugees and that many people are fearful of the attacks, protests, and terrorism that the Syrian Refugees may cause.
Currency
Recently, The Swiss National Bank has gotten rid of the minimum exchange rate of CHF1.20 per Euro and Swiss Francs. This caused the value of the Swiss Franc to become extremely high. With getting rid of the minimum exchange rate, the export industry bears the cost of this effect. Swiss products have always been expensive, but they are now almost unaffordable for most other foreign countries especially around Western Europe. This has caused a lot of problems with not only its economy but also the social economy in Western Europe. The effect of this on Western Europe is that the export industry of Switzerland has been challenging while the import of the countries around Switzerland in Western Europe faces challenges in their import industries because they are not a part of the European Union Free Trade Agreement in which Switzerland is in.