Europe
Would a Euro Area Banking Union Have Saved Cyprus?
Philip Arestis and Malcolm Sawyer Whether a euro area banking union would have saved Cyprus from its recent TROIKA (of European Commission, European Central Bank and IMF) tragic treatment is a very interesting question. If it would, then clearly a move towards a banking union, as part of the cons...
Video Documentary "Global Crises, Regional Solutions"
Can regional integration offer a way out of the current economic, climate, food and energy crises? In this video documentary, activists from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe* argue that regional integration is the only viable response to these crises. CHAPTERS 1 - Why are the regions ...
Rise of Neoliberal and Undemocratic Europe
From Maastricht to the Fiscal Treaty. An interview with Susan George: "We are punishing the innocent, the people who are supposed to pay through austerity, and we are rewarding the guilty because the banks are continuing to receive huge privileges and subsidies from our governments." Watc...
A different kind of Europe
What would a progressive pan-European response to the Euro crisis look like? Professor Trevor Evans calls for a radical downsizing of the financial sector, debt audits, democratisation of the Commission and a full employment policy. Read the full article here.
Neoliberal Europe vs. Social Europe: Can the EU be changed from within?
A compilation of articles on the Left Debate on the euro-crisis. Articles by: Asbjørn Wahl, Mark Weisbrot, Yanis Varoufakis, Michel Husson, Costas Lapavitsas, Özlem Onaran. Download compilation
Breaking Up? A Route Out of the Eurozone Crisis
The Eurozone crisis is part of the global turmoil that began in 2007 as a US real estate crisis, became a global banking crisis, turned into a global recession, and thus gave rise to a sovereign debt crisis. At the end of 2011 there is a risk of returning to a banking crisis in Europe and elsewhere....
EU Economic Governance – For People or for the Banks?
Did fiscal irresponsibility cause the EU crisis? Are European institutions democratically accountable? Is the European Commission politically neutral? Check out TNI's debates with a representative of the European Commission. Read the full article here.
The eurozone between austerity and default
The turmoil in the Eurozone is due to the global crisis of financialisation that broke out in 2007. But it is also due to the biased nature of the European Monetary Union (EMU). Systematic pressure on labour has intensified the disparities of competitiveness among Eurozone members, splitting the Eur...
An internationalist transitional program towards an anti-capitalist Europe
A reply to Costas Lapavitsas. The crisis laid bare the historical divergences within Europe, and led to a European crisis and a new stage in the global crisis. The existing policies in Europe has three fundamental flaws: First, they assume that the problem is a lack of fiscal discipline and repea...
A left strategy for Europe
A reply to Michel Husson. Michel Husson’s article, A European strategy for the left was published by International Viewpoint on January 2011. In the article Husson argues that “the radical left must not get locked into the impossible choice and start the risky adventure of leaving the euro an...
Eight key proposals for another Europe
by Eric Toussaint 17 April 2011 The crisis has shaken the European Union to its very foundations. Public debt is suffocating several countries that have been badly hit by the financial markets. With the governments currently in office, and the European Commission (EC), European ...
Eurozone crisis: beggar thyself and thy neighbour
The public debt crisis of Greece and other peripheral eurozone countries has the potential to harm the European Monetary Union. But the eurozone project has already inflicted damage onto Greece and other peripheral countries. There are two related reasons for the crisis: first, the skewed nature of ...
Manifesto on the crisis of the Euro - ATTAC Germany
Scientific Council ATTAC-Germany, march 2011 The public debt crisis can only be overcome through fundamental reforms of the global financial system as well as the EU. Introduction: Europe at the crossroads The Euro is in danger. This danger comes from those who claim to be its saviours in the...
A crash course in the proposed reforms of economic governance in the European Union
by Kenneth Haar - March 2011 This years biggest and most far reaching reforms of EU legislation are by far the ones on economic governance. At the moment the pact on competitiveness, or the europact as some call it, is the most prominent in the debate. And for a reason. The europact contains...
Towards a Real Alternative
By Elisabeth Gauthier and Walter Baier transform! europe Newsletter 1/2011 On 15-16 January the Executive Board of the European Left Party gathered in Brussels for the first time after the party’s 3rd congress. During this meeting the main guidelines for a campaign aiming at the ...
A European strategy for the left?
Michel Husson offers a contribution to the debate on how the European left should respond to the economic crisis and argues that leaving the euro is not currently an option for countries which use it. Read the full article here.
Corporate EUtopia - how new economic governance measures challenge democracy
by Corporate Europe Observatory 19 January 2011 2011 may mark a watershed in the history of the European Union. Using the pretext of the “euro crisis”, the European Commission and the Council have put forward proposals to give the EU new powers to deal with core welfare issues, including s...
The European Citizens' Initiative – a far cry from participatory democracy
By Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) The European Parliament will this week approve the final deal on the European Citizens Initiative (ECI), which obliges the European Commission to consider proposals supported by the signatures of one million Europeans. The final deal is a compromise be...
Agenda for a social Europe (Party of the European Left)
Joint Action Platform for resistance and alternatives in Europe Political Action Programme of the Party of the European Left 2011-2013 Motion of the EL-ExBoard to the EL 3rd Congress Paris December 3-5, 2010 DOWNLOAD FULL DOCUMENT The 3rd Congress of the European Left is taking place as mor...
Book: Civil Society and International Governance
The Role of Non-State Actors in the EU, Africa, Asia and Middle East Edited by David Armstrong, Valeria Bello, Julie Gilson, Debora Spini Published 29th October 2010 by Routledge – 224 pages Series: Routledge/GARNET series Civil Society and International Governance critically analyses the ...
Papers on Alternative Economic Policy in Europe
16th Workshop on Alternative Economic Policy in Europe, 24-26 September 2010 at the University of Crete, organised by the EuroMemo Group Plenary Presentations Lipietz, Alain Footpaths for a Green Deal - The fall of the Liberal-Productivist model and its alternative W...
EuroMemorandum group: Confronting the Crisis: Austerity or Solidarity
EuroMemorandum 2010/11 Economic growth resumed in the EU in the second half of 2009 but output in 2010 was below precrisis levels and the financial system remains fragile. Following the financial crisis and the subsequent economic crisis, EU states have been faced with rising fiscal deficits as a r...
Europe must become conscious of its own culture
by Luciana Castellina Source: http://rosalux-europa.info/publications/newsletter_en/castellina_europe_culture/ I would like to start my talk with a remark which has no direct connection to CULTURE, but I think we can’t do without a somewhat dramatic observation: We are currently experiencing the...
Videos - Perspectives on Regional Integration from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe
This series of interviews presents the perspectives of activists from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe on the issue of regional integration. All interviews were filmed by TNI at the International Conference of Governments and Social Movements - “Regional Integration: an opportunity to face ...
VIDEO: Perspectives on Regional Integration - Brid Brennan
Brid Brennan (Transnational Institute, The Netherlands) discusses regional integration in Latin America and Europe. Brid argues that the current paradigmatic crisis needs to be dealt with at the regional level. In this respect, Latin American movements have already mobilised and placed different mod...
VIDEO: Perspectives on Regional Integration - Thomas Wallgren
Thomas Wallgren (Philosopher/Social Activist, Finland) gives his perspective on regional integration, focusing on the experience of Europe. In particular, Thomas notes the damaging de-politicisation that has taken place in Europe, arguing that it is now imperative people realise they are “the arch...
Summary report of the World Social Forum (01/09) and ASEAN Peoples' Forum (02/09); "Global Crises-Regional Responses: the inter-linkages between climate change, trade and regional integration"
This report compiles the exchanges of analysis on the role of Europe in a globalized world over three interconnected issues: climate change, trade and regional integration held during two debates which took place in Belem during the World Social Forum (January 2009), and in Bangkok, Thailand during ...
Euromemorandum Group: Europe in Crisis: A Critique of the EU’s Failure to Respond
EuroMemorandum 2009/10 The financial crisis, which began in August 2007 and deepened severely after the failure of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, led to a major slump in output in the final quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009. While these developments originated in the US, Europe ha...
On the European model of integration in a global context
By Thomas Wallgren * Presentation given at International Conference of governments and social movements "Regional Integration: an opportunity to face the crises” (21 and 22 July 2009, Asunción del Paraguay) Because of systemic constraints in the so called leading nations we cannot wai...
European integration, democracy and universalistic ethics
Thomas Wallgren Now we know that the great nineteenth century Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky was prophetic about the fate of his country in the modern world.1 His prophesies about Europe are more difficult to assess. One thing we know, however, is that Dostoevsky's verdict that Europe is a co...
Flexicurity in Europe: 12 hypotheses for labour law in the 21stcentury
Document on the flexisecurity, prepared by some Italian people (Guglielmi, Bronzini, after a discussion in which Berlinguer, Russo et alii took part). The document is a contribution to the preparation of the activities in Malmoe. We ask everyone who is interested in the issue to send contribu...
Hungarian Social Charter 2008
In Budapest on 16th of June 2008 a political movement called Social Charter 2008 was founded by 37 individuals and 8 civil Society Organisations*. The founding document says: „After two decades of the systemic change the society, the economy and the culture in Hungary are in more and more worse...
EuroMemorandum group: Full Employment with Good Work, Strong Public Services, and International Cooperation: Democratic Alternatives to Poverty and Precariousness in Europe
EuroMemorandum 2007 The adoption of the new „Reform Treaty“ for the EU comes at a time of financial crisis, enhanced economic uncertainty and rising social inequality. Additional risks arise from the precarious situation in the areas of energy use and climate change and from mounting imbalanc...
Labour and Development: What can be Learned from the Nordic Model?
Asbjørn Wahl This article examines the welfare state as it developed over the last half century, particularly in Scandinavian countries. The author argues that, rather than being part of a general road to development, it was the result of a very specific historic development in the twenti...
Attac´s Ten Principles for a Democratic Treaty
The European Attacs deem the present form of the European Union a serious obstacle to democratic achievements, fundamental rights, social security, gender justice, and environmental sustainability. It suffers from a lack of democracy, legitimacy, and transparency, and is governed by a set of treatie...
Another Europe is Possible: Ideas for a new Europe
Willem Bos When one asks the average person about Amsterdam, Paris, or Rome, they will likely answerwith an enthusiastic – or not – description of these places with their true or assumed characteristics. The same goes for countries. But ‘Europe’ tends to trigger a very different reaction. E...
Democratic Alternatives to Poverty and Precariousness in Europe: Full Employment with Good Work, Strong Public Services, and International Cooperation
The adoption of the new „Reform Treaty“ for the EU comes at a time of financial crisis, enhanced economic uncertainty and rising social inequality. Additional risks arise from the precarious situation in the areas of energy use and climate change and from mounting imbalances in the world economy...
Is another Europe possible?
Takis Fotopoulos The slogan which dominated the proceedings of the recent annual meeting of the European Social Forum (ESF) in Athens “another, social and peaceful, Europe is possible”, although being more concrete than the usual vague slogan of the World Social Forum (WSF) ―“another wor...
EuroMemorandum Group: A Democratic Economic Policy Alternative to the Neo-liberal Transformation of Europe
EuroMemorandum 2006 Current economic and social developments in the EU are marked by a growing precariousness and uncertainty. The year 2006 saw moderate growth, and the overall rise of the number of people without work has halted at least temporarily . But the level of unemployment remains unacc...
Social movements across Europe: who we are?
Eurotopia Four years on from the first European Social Forum, it is a useful moment collectively to reflect. Over 30 activists from across Europe have responded to a survey aimed to stimulate such shared thinking on common questions concerning building an “us”: key moments, networkings, main im...
Which European Social Model?
Proposals to guide the debate within Attac by Pierre Khalfa and Julien Lusson, members of Attac's Europe Commission The European Union (EU) is the world's wealthy area. But despite its wealth these past two decades, the social situation has deteriorated considerably, particularly with respect to u...
Europe: give the citiziens their say!
The civic, anti-liberal, pro-European mobilisation has opened a new era for Europe. More and more people reject neo-liberal policies and their impact on the whole of social. Following the “no” vote in France and the Netherlands, the demands of Europe’s citizens must be heard — starting with ...
For the democratic refoundation of Europe: Plan ABC by Attac Europe
Declaration by Attac Europe A reunion of the Attacs of Europe has been held on June 16, 2005 in Brussels on occasion of the last European Council of the Luxemburg presidency. A declaration has been adopted, which envisages the putting into place of a Convention of the Attacs of Europe and the put...
EuroMemorandum group: Democratic Policy against the Dominance of Markets: Proposals for an Integrated Development Strategy in Europe
Euromemorandum 2005 The year 2005 has added to the long experience of economic weakness and social downsizing in the EU the clear perception of the obvious crisis of legitimacy and po-litical acceptance by large parts of the public in the Union. The European institutions have responded by decla...
Linking Alternative Regionalisms for Equitable & Sustainable Development
Walden Bello and Dot Keet Download PDF Abstract As the crisis of globalisation deepens , there is an urgent need for the articulation of alternatives. This includes add ressing the question of developing alternatives from the perspectives of social movements in Africa, Asia and Latin-America a...
Multi-Track Strategies of the Major Powers On, and Against, Regional Integration(s)
Dot Keet Alternative Information and Development Centre Regional Briefings 4 The externally oriented motivations for creating stronger regional economic groupings between developing countries, and seeking forms of political cooperation between their governments and between their ...
EuroMemorandum group: Beyond Lisbon: Economic and social policy orientations and constitutional cornerstones for the European Social Model
EuroMemorandum 2004 The brief economic recovery of the EU is over. It was always weak and never broke the long-term vicious circle of low growth, high unemployment and rising inequality. Inadequate domestic demand continues to make the European economy very fragile. Enlargement, although it is to...
Regional Programs in the South and New Peoples' Initiatives in the Context of Contrary Internal Governmental Trends and External Interventions
by Dot Keet, TNI Alternative Regionalisms Project It has long been recognised by many governments and civil society organisations in the countries of the South that the regrouping of their countries into larger economic units is an important basis for effective and sustainable development. This h...
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