Speculative electricity prices in the EU

 Summary

1 - Electricity prices in the EU - 2016 (2nd semester) and 2021 (1st semester)

2 – The tax puncture widens the inequalities inserted in the prices

3 - Remuneration and electricity prices

 
vvvvvvvvvv /////\\\\\vvvvvvvvvv

Eurostat publishes, for EU countries, data on electricity consumption costs, using as a standard consumption in the range 2500/5000 kWh per year. Generally, a comparison between the situations for the EU as a whole in the second half of 2016 and in the first half of 2021. In this context, there is an average increase of of €5.3 during that period, per 1000kwh; that is, the change from €127.6 in 2016 to €132.9 in 2021. Below we will address not only the variations in the period referred to, but also the changes introduced by fees and taxes in the price levels of electricity available, in each country of the EU. And, finally, to observe the result between the evolution of the price of energy and the average salary. 

1 - Electricity prices in the EU - 2016 (2nd semester) and 2021 (1st semester)

In the following chart, the national values for the consumption of 1000 kWh can be observed, without considering the taxes and fees that the States, in general, heavily impose and perpetuate, since energy is something irreplaceable to whose consumption, no one can escape[1] The domestic acquisition of solar energy capture panels, for example - not being viable the taxation of this capture - does not escape the imposition of a VAT rate of 23% by the Portuguese government gangs, the components of the PS/PSD mafia[2].

             Title translation – Price for 1000 kWh excluding taxes and fees

 Following are some conclusions drawn from reading the above graph.

·       Ireland has the highest energy prices (less taxes and fees) and one of the biggest increases in the period. In the immediate place, Belgium and Spain follow; in the latter case, only in 2016;

·       In 2016, Spain had the third-highest price in the Union and recently (2019) it reduced the special tax on electricity from 5.44% to 0.5%; it also suspended the tax on production, which was 7%; and reduced VAT for small users from 21 to 10%. Thus, the price of energy, which was between €170/195 per 1000kwh in 2016/18, moved to inclusion in a range of €118/135 later on.

·       On the other hand, in Portugal, the PS government maintains the maximum VAT rate (23%) decreed by the sister party, the PSD, by order of the troika, about ten years ago; in this context, excluding taxes and fees, values of €100/121 are attributed to energy in the period under analysis for the five-year period observed.

·       Among the richest countries of the Union are most of the highest values (above €125) and increasing during the period – Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Austria; in addition to the Czech Republic, Greece, and France, they surpassed this mark only in 2021.

·       The cases of price decrease, in 2021 and compared to 2016, are situated in; Greece, Spain, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, and Sweden. Excluding the case of Spain, already mentioned, these are essentially Eastern European countries, in addition to Portugal and Sweden.

·       With the lowest values ​​for the price of 1000 kWh and, below €100 are Bulgaria (2016) and Hungary (2021); and, with approximate indicators, are the cases of Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania (2016).

Let us then observe the prices for 1000 kWh, in 2016 and 2021, but now, considering the effects of the intervention of state leeches and, more specifically, of their parasitic political classes that find, in this essential good – electric energy – an instrument of suction of proceeds from the crowd; without forgetting the financial support and special prerogatives that States grant to operators in the energy sector.

 

Title translation – Price for 1000 kWh excluding taxes and fees

It is easy to see that the highest prices occur particularly in the richest countries, almost all of which exceed €150 per 1000 kWh; and conversely, where income levels are lower, energy prices are also lower. There is, however, one notable exception, that of a country in southwestern Europe called Portugal, where energy prices exceed those of countries as rich as the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Finland, and, Sweden; compared to other lower income countries, the price of electricity in Portugal is higher by around €100/150 per 1000 kWh^[3].

 2 – The tax puncture widens the inequalities inserted in the prices

Let us take a closer look at the base prices of energy, which are much more disparate when they incorporate the high charges with fees and taxes applied by States and their respective political classes; generally raising the price of energy to be paid by peoples, as can be seen in the following charts, for 2016 and 2021.

In 2016, it is quite clear that electricity prices in Denmark, Germany and, Belgium are the most expensive in the EU – €308, €298 and €275 respectively; the first two countries are the only ones that incorporate fees and taxes as the dominant shares in the total electricity price; a reality that is also evident in 2021. In addition to the two countries mentioned, it should be noted that Portugal appears as the country with the highest share of taxes and fees in the price of energy, in 2016 (47.3%) as in 2021 (45.9%); surpassed by a small margin by Spain (41.5%) in the current year.

Also in 2016, the price of energy appears to be the lowest in Bulgaria (€93.8), followed by Lithuania, Hungary, and Romania. As for the relevance of fees and taxes, their absolute value is particularly low in the Eastern countries, with emphasis on Bulgaria and Hungary; in addition to the case of Malta where the share of fees and taxes is only €6.1, for an overall price of €127.4. 

In the first half of 2021, the highest electricity prices belong to the same countries referenced for 2016; but this time with the highest value in Germany - €319, followed by Denmark €290 and Belgium with €270. The first two present the only situations in which the share of taxes and fees exceeds the level of energy production, of itself. As for the greater weight of the tax burden and similar in the overall value, Denmark and Germany stand out, with 64% and 51%, respectively, followed by Portugal (45.9%) and Spain (41.5%).

Comparing the situation in 2021 with that observed five years earlier shows different realities. In the case of the base value of production, without considering taxes and fees, are recorded the following:

·       11 reductions in that base value, highlighting: Spain (-43.8%) and, drops just below 19%, (Sweden -19.9%) and Slovakia (-19.2%)…

·       and 16 additions to the base value, where the following stand out: Romania 22.2%, Lithuania 18.5%, Ireland 19.1%, Germany and Finland 18%, Austria 17.2%…

In the chapter on changes in taxes and fees included in the fine prices of energy and, decided by the state apparatus, it is worth noting:

·       10 countries with reductions in the weight of that set of elements that burden the price of electricity, with the most relevant cases being Spain 47.7%, Cyprus 36.4%, Poland 32.8% and Slovakia 32.3%.

·       17 countries with increases in the tax burden or rates, the most relevant being – Spain 47.7%, Cyprus 36.4%, Poland 32.8% and Slovakia 32.3%.

·       10 tax cuts, the largest being, Netherlands 47.3%, Denmark 27.6%, Latvia 17.1%, Greece 16.2% and Portugal 12.9%.

In summary, the arithmetic means,

·       For energy, including taxes and fees, the global averages are €176.5 and €183.5, respectively for 2016 and 2021

·         Energy, excluding taxes and fees that are levied on it, show averages, in 2016 and 2021, of €119.3 and €122.6

From this it can be deduced that there is a value of around €60 for every 1000 kWh subtracted from the populations by state bureaucracies and their adjacent political classes.

 3 - Remunerations and electricity prices

The following graph shows the comparison for a very approximate time-lapse (2016/1st half/2021) between electricity prices and 2016/2020 and average wages in EU countries.

The graph shows the countries where the wage evolution had a higher growth rate than electricity prices (16) and the remaining countries (11), where electricity prices had a higher growth rate than average wages. However, it is important to consider that the percentage changes in energy prices may be close to those registered for remuneration, without it being possible to conclude that, in absolute values, they correspond to similar realities. For example, in the case of Germany, energy prices between the two years considered were €298 and €319 respectively, per 1000 kWh (+7.2%) while average earnings, in the same period, increased by 6.3% (€2387).

The situations in which the rate of increase in the price of energy exceeds that observed for remunerations are 8 countries; among which only two – Czech Republic and Cyprus – are not among the richest. The 14 countries where it was preferred not to burden wages with proportionally higher increases for energy are essentially those that the poorest, even if accompanied by others, much richer - Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Between the two positions – Slovenia, Spain, Italy, and Poland. 

---

^[1] Except for those who live in marginal neighbourhoods, especially in the so-called Third World, where clandestine pulls are common.

^[2] During the troika monitoring of governance in Portugal in 2014, VAT on electricity increased from 6% to 23%. Despite the usual governmental praise about the strength of the Portuguese economy, seven years later, the tax continues to be applied at that maximum rate.  

^[3] Accused of crimes within the scope of EDP, the main electricity company, are the company's former directors – António Mexia, Manso Neto and a former minister of the Socialist  Party area, Manuel Pinho.

 This and other texts at:

 ​http://grazia-tanta.blogspot.com/            

 http://www.slideshare.net/durgarrai/documents

 https://en.scribd.com/uploads                   

 

Glasgow – Guinness mugs on the loose

 1 - The mandarin spectacle – COP 26

 2 - Against the irrationality inherent to capitalism? Not really…

  wwwwwwwwwwIIIIII wwwwwwwww

1 - The mandarin spectacle – COP 26

It becomes absolutely evident that COP 26 is just a media number to convince the naive that the large and small national mandarins present in Glasgow will do something substantive in the environmental chapter. With less media attention, an event supported by the Alliance of World Scientists in August with more than 15,000 signatories, from 160 countries, in support of the following declaration: World Scientists Warning of a Climate Emergency.

For the solemnity intended to be given to the Glasgow conference, it began with an error revealing gross ignorance. Prosecutors presented a video about the extinction of dinosaurs and did not think that those animals died in a cold climate after a meteorite hit; and not with global warming like the one we are witnessing. The meteorite of that time today would be capitalism. And if someone insane thinks of applying a radical solution to cool the climate, it's enough to generate a… nuclear war; the bombs and vehicles to drop them are in constant need...

COP26 clearly shows its oligarchic spirit by considering, almost exclusively, the presence of representatives from countries, from governmental spheres; with the … natural removal of thousands of NGOs dedicated to gathering information and putting in the field options that governments, on top of their oligarchical pedestals, do not consider it per se and, even less, deign to apply. On November 3, thousands of NGOs present in Glasgow, the accredited were just four! The dichotomy between the set of political classes present at the conference, and the NGOs, is clear. NGOs originated social initiatives, in spite many of them they naively believe that those political classes, under the effect of a divine breath, will be in charge of burying capitalism and redeem themselves, like ascetics, in a frugal convent life…

 

For national oligarchs, the world belongs to them, even if some are more equal than others…; and the common people, they cannot mix with the oligarchs, they stay at the door. The young Greta Thunberg^[1] portrayed this situation very well – “This is no longer a climate conference, it is a festival washing the green image for the global North”; thus, this situation deserves all critical radicalism, showing itself as a mirror of what capitalism is and, in this context, it deserves all the opposition that is necessary to make to the political classes that, as a rule, are problems in themselves and only for the naive, resolution builders.

The global political class, faced with opposition as weak as that emanating from ecological parties and groups, does not even hide; on the contrary, it has no concern to hide its image as reckless spendthrifts, nor the exhibitionism and arrogance typical of those who know how poor the understanding and performance of victims of the dominant economic and political system is. As it is mirrored in Glasgow… Let's look at some examples.

A few days ago, from October 29th to 31st, in Rome, at the meeting of the G20, a group formed by the countries with the greatest economic power in the world, they received from the partner Maserati 40 cars available to the mandarins (read heads of State and of Government) for use during the conclave. 

To participate in COP26, 400 private jets arrived in Glasgow, each with a mandarin (the ride is not planned!) all “full of enthusiasm” to participate in the circus. It is known that they emit 13,000 t of CO2, equivalent to the consumption of 1600 Scots during a year, according to the Sunday Mail!

Still in Glasgow, Biden's enthusiasm was so great that he was dozing a little during a session… Days before, Biden (some people call him Zombiden) disembarked in Rome for a G20 session, in his Cadillac One, a mastodon with an 8100 cc engine, very ecological because… it consumes only 29 to 64 litres of gasoline per 100 kilometres (!) and that circulated in a procession with more… 84 cars for the safety of the individual. But it would be unfair if we limited ourselves to the behavior of the limited Biden as Ursula von der Leyen, more measured, only used her private jet on 18 of her 34 official trips, including in one of them a route of… 50 km, between Vienna and Bratislava.

Biden knows he has little leeway in Congress to apply $555,000M to climate change. In contrast, in the US, the fossil fuel sectors have received $3B over the past six years. Interestingly, the same Biden facilitated a 900% increase in coal shipped to China while seeking to limit Russian and Qatari gas sales to replace them with shale gas, the extraction of which is an environmental crime![²]. Years ago, we observed in a National Geographic article a very strange situation… In a place close to one of these extractions, in the USA, when a burning match approached from the water that came out of a tap, the liquid produced small flames.

Some three years ago, 300,000 commercial aircraft circulated daily, in addition to the totally nefarious and useless exercises carried out in the context of military manoeuvres. In addition to other specific operations with a useful purpose, between the military, in Portugal, we only register as worthy the coordination carried out by Gouveia e Melo within the scope of covid 19.

Such a nourishing party in Glasgow seems to be destined to present a novelty — the creation of the first global tax (“carbon tax”) by the States, levied by the respective local mandarins, who will, of course, be responsible for transmitting this tax burden to the people.

Of course, this won't affect fossil fuel emporiums much; they are well aware that the automobile is the most loved element of families, who sacrifice themselves to have a vehicle available at their doorstep. Experience shows that the appreciation of the car is so great that the common people will accept, resignedly, to pay any increase in taxes that may encumber the ownership of a vehicle and its circulation. On the other hand, no one sane will believe that the political classes will override the interests of their national companies in the field of automobiles and fuel sales; imposing limitations and tax burdens on those who, by tradition, finance the dominant parties and their bosses.

The WHO, which has not been brilliant in combating the coronavirus, even with substantial financial support from Gates, presents, in times of COP26, a proposal to reduce accidents and deaths on the road that are guided, per year, respectively, in 50 and 1.3 millions of people (Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety). This plan aims to reduce speed limits to 30 km/h in urban areas, to 80 km/h in localities and to 100 km/h in motorways. According to the director of the WHO Department of Social Determinants of Health, Etienne Krug, the more than 50 M who have died on the roads since the invention of cars clearly outnumber those killed in the four years of World War I (20 M).

The dominant economic environment shows the focus on increasing profits, increasing production, exports, competition, inveterate consumption fostered by advertising; as well as in the reduction of the direct intervention of the workers, in the reduction of the production costs or, of the ratio of wages/profits. The WHO Plan, confronted with the real economic environment, would have to imply a profound change in the economic paradigm, in a political involvement barely visible in the global context of economist, of corrupt political classes captured by economic interests. Above all, it demands strong activism from the populations themselves in favour of the health and well-being of all, which would make evident the uselessness of the political classes, financed by the States and by entities with hidden interests; an alternative for the construction of effectively democratic models of political representation with the annulment of the existence of political oligarchies, such as those present at COP26.

2 - Against the irrationality inherent to capitalism? Not really…

The aforementioned elements point to profound changes to be developed in human mobility, both in long distances and in current, short-distance movements and, above all, in commuting to home/work, especially when accompanied by triangular paths involving schools or nurseries. The solutions contemplate the reduction of time and dimension of the home/work routes through public transport, without emission of gases and, to the detriment and discrimination of car transport when, in addition, with the driver as the only passenger. And, one could go even further, mixing workplaces with residential areas in order to reduce commuting routes on transport or even cover these routes on foot.

It is completely irrational to spend an inordinate amount of time in public transport, full of people, with the air saturated and bottled up in traffic, in the well-known stop-and-go; it is irrational to spend a considerable amount of time in an endless line of cars, idling, releasing toxic gases into the atmosphere, in the morning and at the end of the afternoon, passing through a school or kindergarten; The low investment in electricity-powered rail routes is irrational: it is irrational to build huge buildings with several dwellings per floor, with elevator costs and little space for parking, even if free and not subject to payment to a local authority or a company. The constant increase in urban and suburban areas always comes before careful planning of the transport network; and these end up adapting to the layout of the streets, available to the buildings, without any planning or rationality on the part of municipalities mined with shady business between mandarins and property developers.

The concentration of economic activities in urban areas, sometimes gigantic, constantly attracts population, contributing to the depletion of rural areas, with little economic activity and reduced sanitary coverage, adjusted for an ageing population, with deserted villages and closed houses, when not in accelerated degradation. That is, a dichotomous and regressive occupation of the territory.

Clean energies fall into two groups.

Some require heavy and expensive infrastructure, operating in a contractual, market logic, between producers and consumers, with the inevitable presence of an increased tax burden to feed political classes, always eager to use the state machine, not retreating from favours and other acts corrupt. They are based on mercantile logic and tend to be invasive – wind towers, hectares covered with solar panels, requiring transport networks with inherent losses along the way.

The second version consists of the easy adaptation to a family house or a group of tenants in a medium-sized building, capable of production for self-consumption; without tax, but with partial interference from large electrical companies, in periods of low production. In Portugal, the intervention of the troika in 2013/15 introduced a 23% VAT rate, the same one used for sumptuous consumptions and for necessities, such as electricity consumed in homes; this situation is inside the action of a predatory State, collecting an immeasurable tax burden and revealing a reality in which taxes can be created, maintained but rarely reduced. And, when reduced, it is because of compensation in another tax.

The lightness of the political classes in the face of the situation associated with the contempt for the human multitude on the part of the capitalists, especially the powerful, such as Bezos^[3] or Gates; or from inept politicians like Biden or Boris. Fearful of any more harmful attitude to their important carcasses, they only feel safe, in the company of their peers, always surrounded by police and security guards.

The problem in today's world is that smart people are

full of  doubts and idiot people are full of certainty

The common press lives in a concubinage relationship with the political class; together they constitute a pair of entertainers from the crowd. Members of the political class need the media to constantly divulge their abilities, their speeches, their presence in public places, the applause of the bastards; and, vice versa, the media, in order to sell the advertising that pays the costs, unfolds itself in the collection and dissemination of opinions, promises, criticisms of the opposition, by the mandarins; the more tense a political dispute, the more the subject matters to the media. Political class and press constitute two osmotic worlds where emptiness, lies, is the main elements placed in the press in general or, broadcast on TV, for the more media, 24 hours a day, interspersed with contests, idiotic series or full of violence and football; and, in the latter case, it is a matter of extremely narrow effective content, made up of exacerbated rivalries and conflicts, between managers eager for money from player transfers.

It is evident that the capitalists and the political classes have always been light-hearted in the face of transformations that lead, all over the place, to poor air quality, diseases, exhausting displacements within urban areas, exhaustion, and poisoning of agricultural soils, etc. everything, following its productivism, its eagerness for the growth of the GDP or, the accumulation of capital, if you prefer…

To say lightness is, in fact, very… light. Both groups — capitalists and political classes — are fierce defenders of the so-called free market, even if its operation, in the main business areas, has been controlled by companies or oligopolies of enormous size and power. The drive for a constant valuation of securities on the stock exchanges dominates the large global emporiums, and this drive has repercussions on the lower levels of business. On the other hand, this valuation incorporates billions of fictitious currency units, so that said financial markets are always expanding. And, governments follow the same logic by that dazzle people, taking as their objective the infinite growth of the GDP, covering up, in between, the stagnation or the weak evolution of real income from work^[4].

As for global warming, the subject will drop off the agenda when the Glasgow meeting closes. Capitalists and their peers will continue to show a reasonable disinterest, more focused on the appreciation of securities on the stock market. And, the political classes will keep global warming on the agenda, on a low heat, as a way of putting pressure on governments. As for the ecological groups, they become parties like the others, like the German Greens, entering the German government, as years ago in the war in the former Yugoslavia; or, they are content to present creative technologies to postpone the moment of a massive collapse, without touching the global model of capitalist management or even the representational model, oligarchic and authoritarian.

 

The perfect dictatorship will have the appearances of democracy, a prison without walls in which prisoners will not even dream of escaping. A system of slavery where, thanks to consumption and entertainment, slaves will love slavery

This and other texts in:

http://grazia-tanta.blogspot.com/

http://www.slideshare.net/durgarrai/documents                                

https://pt.scribd.com/uploads

 

---

^[1] Has Greta learned that there is no constructive dialogue with the top names of the political class? We recall her (useless) meeting a couple of years ago with Obama, the promoter of the wars of destruction in Libya, Syria and Iraq; the same Obama who appears with the purity of a dove, at the conclave of COP26, as he presented  himself as a dove of peace, deserving the Nobel, just before deciding to invade Libya , proceeding with the destructuring of West Asia and validating the coup d'etat in Egypt to bring dictator al-Sisi to power. 

[2] The factual elements contained in the previous paragraphs are mostly from https://informacaoincorrecta.com (G20 and COP26: WYSIWYG)  

[3] Bezos hasn't found anything smarter than paying a fortune for a four-minute suborbital ride https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/jeff-bezos-space-flight-money-better-uses/ 

[4] The Portuguese Prime Minister recently proposed an increase, for 2022, of the minimum wage, from €700 to €705, ie +0.71%, which is below the expected inflation (0.9%). It is about the misery of a Portugal of the little ones.

Structure and evolution of the various levels of education in the EU (2011/20)

Summary

1 - Educational profiles of the European population

2 - Level of qualifications (0-2)

3 - Level of qualifications (3-4)

4 - Level of qualifications (5-8)

Historical note

 M/W distribution by educational level[1] in the EU (population 15/64 years old) (%)

Levels	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Total
0-2	30,5	29,8	28,8	28,4	27,9	27,4	26,9	26,3	25,7	25,1
3-4	47,1	47,0	47,2	47,1	47,0	46,9	46,8	46,5	46,3	46,0
5-8	22,4	23,2	24	24,5	25,2	25,7	26,4	27,1	27,9	29,0
Women
0-2	30,6	29,6	28,6	28,1	27,4	26,8	26,2	25,6	24,9	24,1
3-4	45,8	45,7	45,8	45,8	45,6	45,6	45,4	45,1	45,0	44,5
5-8	23,6	24,6	25,6	26,0	26,9	27,6	28,4	29,3	30,2	31,4
Men
0-2	30,5	29,9	29,0	28,7	28,3	27,9	27,5	27,1	26,6	26,1
3-4	48,3	48,3	48,6	48,3	48,4	48,3	48,2	48,0	47,7	47,4
5-8	21,2	21,8	22,4	23,0	23,4	23,8	24,3	25,0	25,7	26,5

1 - Educational profiles of the European population

Very briefly, in the table above and, for the decade considered, there is a reduction in the volume of people with the lowest qualifications, compensated by the increase in the group with the highest levels of education; and, with a relative stagnation of the weight of the set that encompasses people with an intermediate education (3-4). The weight of women with higher qualifications, in total, increased more than that of men; and on the other hand the fall among women with the lowest qualifications is more pronounced than that observed among the men.

 _______

[1]   Levels of education of the population aged 15/64:

0-2 - Less than primary, primary and lower secondary

3-4 – Upper secondary, post-secondary not higher

5-8 - Superior

    All data were collected from Eurostat

To what we have summarized above as a general framework follows by the development next, where we can observe the evolution of the weight of each educational segment between 2011 and 2020, without gender distinction:

2011 – Educational profile of European countries

2020 – Educational profile of European countries

The observation of the two graphs shows some changes to the pattern, constituted by the predominance of people with intermediate levels of education (3-4); regardless of gender.

In 2011, five countries were out of this pattern, where the portion of the population with the lowest qualifications (0-2) is predominant. Thus, the 5 most negative situations (in %) are:

2011 – Turkey (70), Portugal (64.2), Malta (58.9), Spain (47), Italy (45.5)

2020 - Turkey (58.7), Portugal (44.5), Malta (40.3), Italy (39), Spain (38.2)

And, the 5 least dramatic situations (in %) were evidenced in:

2011 - Czech Republic (13.9), Slovakia (15.7) Lithuania (15.9), Poland (17.5), Estonia (17.7)

2020 - Lithuania (10.8), Czech Rep. (12.3), Poland (12.9), Slovakia (13.5) Latvia (14.6)

A Europe at various speeds, with very different population profiles, in the chapter on levels of education, inducers of various levels of income and well-being, despite the existence of community funds that serve only to maintain these inequalities without social convulsions. This structural situation is guaranteed by the action of closed political oligarchies, reactionary and corrupt, obedient to the great multinational emporiums and the financial system; that, in order to maintain their power, they repay the parties politicians and their mandarins with legal and illegal funding.

In 2020 there are some changes, but none in the sense of strengthening the workforce populations with (0-2) education profile. The biggest breaks in the representativeness of the profile (0-2) in the period 2011/20 are observed in Portugal (19.7%), Malta (18.6%), Greece (12.8%) and Turkey (11%) in a context where, in the EU-27, the reduction was 5.4%. These reductions show the greatest cognitive demands that productive and cultural processes are placing in the new generations and, on the other hand, the deaths of older people with qualifications acquired in very ancient times. It should be noted that in Germany, in 2020, we find the only case of population increase with the profile (0-2).

In 2011, there was no situation of predominance of an echelon representation of (5-8) qualifications. On the other hand, the weight of the population, in 2020, included in that level grows, in all countries with the highest increase cases, above 10%, in Austria (15%), Malta (12.9%), Lithuania (10.8%) and Switzerland (10.4%). In 2020 and, with regard to the weight in the population of 15/64 years old, the most expressive marks in the grade (5-8) of qualifications are showed in Ireland (42.8%), Luxembourg (40.9%) and Cyprus (40.2%), and also in Norway, Belgium and Iceland which outperform the segment (3-4) of qualifications by a small margin.

 2 - Level of qualifications (0-2)

The weight in the total population at level 0-2, regardless of sex, can be observed. In none case the representation of this level of education increases, between 2011 and 2020, and the main falls are recorded in countries where this level of education was most significant in 2011. Turkey, in 2020 is the only country where, in the last year, the population with the level of education 0-2 remained above 50% of the population; Portugal and Malta lost this "distinction" in force in 2011.

Also in global terms of qualification 0-2, it is observed here the situation of the female population, on the one hand, and the male population, on the other. So the break for the cast of women in that qualification profile (-6.5 percentage points) is higher than that of men (-4.4 pp), between the two years to which the data refer. The biggest reductions in the female population are registered in Malta (20.3 pp), Portugal (20 pp) and Iceland (13.1 pp), with only one case of increasing, albeit marginal, in Germany (0.2 pp). The fall of indicators is more evident in women than among men, especially in Iceland (7.4 pp), Austria (4 pp) and Switzerland (3.8 pp), the opposite occurring in Greece (4.2 pp) and Latvia, among others.

 The targeting for level 0-2 between women and men has the following profiles:

In summary, the 5 situations with the greatest weight for female populations (in %) are:

 2011 – Turkey (75.0), Portugal (60.9), Malta (59.1), Spain (44.9), Italy (44.0)

2020 - Turkey (62.2), Portugal (40.9), Malta (38.8), Italy (36.7), Spain (34.8)

 And, the 5 most acceptable situations (in %) — all verified in Eastern Europe — are:

2011 - Lithuania (14.3), Estonia (14.9), Latvia (15.7), Czech Rep. (16.0), Slovakia and Poland (17.1)

2020 - Lithuania (9.0), Latvia (11.8), Poland (12.2), Estonia (12.4), Czech Rep. (12.9).

Portugal and Malta show the biggest reductions in the volume of women in this age group of qualifications (about 20 pp), although this does not change the hierarchy on the podium, nor does it change the distance relating to Turkey which maintains the largest share of women with this pattern of qualifications. On the other hand, after the general reduction in 2020, the compression margin will tend to decrease, by effect of the mortality of the elderly, with less education, a fact combined with the entry into the levels of higher education, of younger women.

In the case of males, the reduction in their weight in total, in the period 2011/20 is 4.4 pp, clearly below the observed for women (-6.5% pp, as mentioned). In total population aged 15/64 years, the weight of men in total, increased from 30.5% to 26.1%. Luxembourg and the Czech Republic show, in 2020, zero variations in the share of men with levels educational 0-2.

In summary, the 5 situations with the greatest importance of male populations (in %) are:

2011 – Portugal (67.6), Turkey (64.8), Malta (58.7), Spain (49), Italy (47)

2020 - Turkey (55.1), Portugal (48.3), Malta (41.6), Spain (41.5), Italy (41.4);

and, the 5 situations with less relevance of the male populations (in %) are:

2011 - Czech Republic (11.8), Slovakia (14.2), Germany (16.4), Lithuania (17.5), Poland (18)

2020 - Czech Republic (11.8), Lithuania (12.6), Slovakia (13), Poland (13.7), Slovenia (13.9)

The main reductions (> 10%) in this male segment in 2011/20 are observed in the South (Portugal, Malta, and Greece) in addition to Ireland. Only in Germany shows a growth in the weight (3.8%) of this slice of the male population, perhaps with the entry of many immigrants, coming largely from the Near East; the same happens with women but on a much lower scale (0.2%).

3 - Level of qualifications (3-4)

Level 3-4 is, roughly speaking, the one where the largest number of people are integrated in the set of both sexes; it constitutes the intermediate level of qualifications. The people included in this level, in 2011 they emerged as the largest segment of the population, except in Spain, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Iceland and Turkey, where the dominant group is that of the least instructed (0-2) population. On the other hand, in 2011, there is no record in which level 5-8 is shown dominant. Nine years later, there are notorious changes.

The countries where the 0-2 level is dominant, they belong, in 2020, to the Mediterranean basin – Turkey, Portugal, Malta, and Spain. On the other hand, there are six countries that started to consider the echelon of higher education (5-8) as the dominant, a situation that did not exist nine years before  Ireland (42.8%) and Luxembourg (40.9%) with the highest indicators and also, Cyprus, Norway, Belgium, and Iceland.

In the graph below, the segmentation of countries into two groups can be seen; that of those who increase the relative weight in 2011/20 and those that reduce it. The strongest population growth with education levels (3-4) are registered in countries on the southern periphery – Portugal (9.9%), Greece (6.5%) and Malta (5.7%), among others, a fact that is not registered in the South and East, on the contrary. In between to the latter, Austria reduces its population with education level 3-4, by 10.6% followed by Luxembourg (-7.4%).

In the first situation are the countries of the Mediterranean fringe, with educational profiles weaker than the rest, to the north and east, where changes are made towards strengthening higher educational levels (5-8). Portugal and Greece have the biggest rises in the weight of level 3-4 and overlap with Turkey regarding the low representation of that level education, being still at a stage of educational development, passing the level 0-2 to 3-4; while the rest are reinforcing the relevance of the highest qualifications (5-8) at the expense of levels 3-4.

 

As a rule, for the EU as a whole, the share of men with education level 3-4 is higher than that of women in 2011 and in 2020, even though in both cases there was a slight fall; however, in most cases gender differences are not very relevant.

In the case of men, their share of this level of education in Portugal exceeded 19.7% of the total to 31.5%, the biggest rise overall, followed by Greece with 9.9 pp of increase. These rises occurred essentially in Southern Europe but, including France, Finland, and Ireland. As for the reduction in the proportion of men included in this profile, the largest falls are registered in Austria (-10.7%), Luxembourg and Germany.

 

For women, there is an overall reduction of 1.3%, which does not show great difference compared to that recorded for men (-1%); and even though there are many more cases of a reduction than of increases in the female population with education included in profile 3-4. The vast majority of cases of reduction is seen in the group of countries located to the north and center of Europe, especially Austria (-10.5%), Luxembourg (-8%) and Latvia (-7.3%). Concerning the situations of the most relevant increase in female labour, Portugal and Malta arise, respectively with 8 and 5.6%, an evolution essentially present in the countries of the South, with the exceptions of Ireland, France, and Iceland.

4 - Level of qualifications (5-8)

All the considered countries show an increase in the weight of the population with this level of qualifications, as a reflection of the demands that the acquired knowledge keep up with the social, economic and cultural evolution: that constitutes a characteristic of the historical process, even we verify the existence of areas of civilizational regression with greater or lesser temporal dimension.

In 2011, the level of education 5-8 did not appear as the most relevant among the considered countries; the cases in which this type of population had the greatest relative importance were Ireland (34.4%), Cyprus (33.7%), GB (33.2%) and still, with indicators above 30%, countries such as Belgium, Estonia, Luxembourg, Finland, and Norway. Nine years later, in 2020, the higher indicators corresponded to countries such as Ireland (42.8%), Luxembourg (40.9%) and Cyprus (40.2%) and Belgium, Iceland and Norway. In this context, in none of the considered countries, we see a reduction of the relative weight of the population with qualification 5-8.

The situations of greatest growth in the relative weight of the 5-8 segment of qualifications in the period 2011/20 appear in Austria (15%), Malta (12.9%), Lithuania (10.8%), Switzerland (10.4%) and in Portugal and Slovenia with 9.9%. On the opposite pole, that of situations of weak growth in the relevance of this type of training, are found in Germany (2.9%), Romania (3.3%), Italy (4.7%) and also Northern Macedonia, Hungary and Bulgaria.

The following graph reveals the differences between European countries in terms of more qualified population weight; as well as the huge differences between national indicators – in 2011 the Irish indicator is triple of that registered by Turkey and, in 2020, this cleavage shrinks slightly compared to Romania.

In summary, the 5 situations where the relief of the most skilled populations is greater (in %) are:

2011 – Ireland (34.4), Cyprus (33.7), Finland (32.5), UK (33.2), Norway (32.1)

2020 - Ireland (42.8), Luxembourg (40.9), Cyprus (40.2), Finland (39.8), Switzerland (39.3);

 And, the situations with less relevance of this set of qualifications (in %) are:

2011 – Turkey (11.3), Romania (12.9), Italy (13.2) Northern Macedonia (15.0) Malta (15.1), Croatia (15.4) and Portugal (15.5)

2020 - Romania (16.2), Italy (17.9), Turkey (19.7), Northern Macedonia (20.0) and Croatia (22.0)

There are no cases of reduction in the relative weight of this type of qualifications; the cases where the evolution was weaker, in the period 2011/20, are Germany (12%), Estonia and Cyprus (19%). Conversely, the largest increases are observed in Austria (92%), Malta (85%), Turkey (74%) and Portugal (64%).

Now, let us observe the increased role of women in the set of higher qualifications (5-8). Within the population aged 15 to 64 years, with training in the higher echelons (5-8), the following elements, reveal the greatest commitment and dynamism of women regarding the possession of higher qualifications; even though, in many situations, women are relegated to painful functions, inadequate to their knowledge, precarious and, with lower salaries than men.

	2011		2020		Variation 5-8
Level of skills	5 - 8	0.2 / 3-4	5 - 8	0-2 / 3-4
men	21.2%	78.8%	26.5 %	73.5%	+25.0%
women	23.6%	76.4%	31.4%	68.6%	+33.1%
total	22.4%	77.6%	29.0%	71.0%	+29.4%

The 5 situations where the most skilled women are more prominent (in %) are all in the north of the Europe:

2011 – Estonia (38.8), Finland (37.9), Ireland (37.6), Norway (36.1), Sweden (33.8)

2020 - Finland (46.7), Ireland (46.1), Cyprus and Sweden (44.9), Norway (44.3);

 and, the situations with less relevance of this set of qualifications (in %) are:

2011 – Turkey (9.5), Romania (13.2), Italy (14.6) Austria (14.8), Malta (15.3), Macedonia of the North (15.4);

2020 - Romania (17.5), Turkey (18.8), Italy (20.6), Northern Macedonia (22.0) and Czech Republic (24.5).

The evolution of the presence of women in the scope of the highest basic qualifications shows that there is no case of regression; on the contrary, in all countries there is a growth in the share of women. For example, in the considered period, there are eleven situations with the score exceeding 40%, linked to three situations where the threshold exceeds the 45% - Estonia, Ireland, and Finland.

As for the lowest indicators, in 2011 there were four situations in which women represented less than 15% of those qualified with level 5-8 of education (Romania, Turkey, Italy, and Austria). In 2020, the 20% threshold was only not reached by Romania and Turkey.

 

Even these indicators reveal a low female participation, the observed evolution between the two moments in comparison is notorious.

As for the male population with higher education, as for women, there are no cases of regression in this population segment, in the period 2011/20. In 2011, only five countries presented values ​​above 30%, as mentioned below; nine years later the number of countries was fourteen. And, among these, three exceeded 35% (Ireland, Netherlands and Cyprus, as can be seen in the graph) and, the remaining two – Switzerland and Luxembourg – had more than 40% of the male population with qualifications fitting profiles 5-8.

 

Concerning male work, the 5 situations where the weight of more skilled men is greater (in %) are:

2011 – Switzerland (33.5), Luxembourg (33.4), UK (32.4), Ireland (31.1), Cyprus (30.2);

2020 - Switzerland (41.5), Luxembourg (40.2), Ireland (39.3), Netherlands (35.5), Cyprus (35.2);

 and, the situations with less relevance of this set of qualifications (in %) are:

2011 – Italy (11.7) Romania (12.6), Portugal (12.7), Turkey (13.1), Croatia (14.0);

2020 - Romania (15.0), Italy (15.1), Maced. North (18.1), Croatia (18.3), Slovakia (19.5).

It will certainly not be strange that in those two countries - Switzerland and Luxembourg - the financial sector has a unique relevance and provide a relevant contribution to the concentration of people with high qualifications.

Bibliography

Education levels among the peoples of Europe (1st part)

https://grazia-tanta.blogspot.com/2019/08/os-niveis-de-educacao-entre-os-povos-da.html

School leaving in Europe (2000-2018) - 2nd part

https://grazia-tanta.blogspot.com/2019/08/o-abandono-escolar-na-europa-2000-2018.html

Education and the economic model for Southern Europe (1)

http://grazia-tanta.blogspot.pt/2013/03/a-instrucao-eo-modelo-economico-para-o.html

Inequalities in demographic dynamics in the Iberian Peninsula (1990/2019)

https://grazia-tanta.blogspot.com/2020/07/desigualdades-na-dinamica-demografica.html

Historical note

In the context of the EU, Portugal presents a negative situation, which leads us to think on some historical factors. During the fascist regime, in force between 1926/74, the levels of illiteracy were very high, which was consistent with the Catholic and patriarchal character of the regime. One can take as an example, the position of the dictator Salazar, for whom women's illiteracy, for example, was considered a form to maintain the decency and good social practices of Catholic morality, since they could not write “little notes to lovers”… certainly full of indecency.

The current post-fascist regime, anchored in the PS/PSD (socialist and social-democratic parties), certainly did not co-opt those ultramontane prejudices; it was confined to maintain a low level of qualifications, the adequate to the characteristics of Portuguese businessmen that, statistical data meanwhile removed from publication (Iberian Peninsula in Numbers), showed that the Portuguese employers had qualifications lower than the ones of wage earners; which contrasted with what was happening in Spain and Europe in general.

This and other texts in:

 http://grazia-tanta.blogspot.com/

http://www.slideshare.net/durgarrai/documents

https://pt.scribd.com/uploads