European Union

The Struggle for Europe's Soul March 2007
Oscar Reyes
The European Union (EU) marks its 50th birthday this month with no solution in sight to revive the stalled constitutional treaty. But with a raft of new proposals to further liberalise markets, it is too soon for the left to celebrate, argues Oscar Reyes

Whose Europe? Our Europe October 2006
Susan George
Despite its imperfections, the European social model is worth fighting for as a counterpoint to neoliberal ideology, writes Susan George

Another Europe is Possilbe
Ideas for a New Europe
The Constitutional Treaty, which the German EU Presidency is now determined to put back on the agenda, presents market solutions as the only viable ones for a Europe, further threatening the continent’s already eroded welfare systems. Europe needs democratisation, argues Willem Bos, in this pamphlet produced for the Dutch coalition, of which TNI is a member.

Economic Security and Social Rights 5 September 2006
By Susan George
Speaking at the Asia-Europe People’s Forum in Helsinki, Susan George stressed the threat to the European social model, a result of generations of struggle, but is threatened by neoliberal policies in the EU and globally. It is impossible for Europe to compete with China and other low-wage, but high-skill, high-tech countries. Asia-Europe relations must be based on cooperation rather than competition if a race to the bottom on wages and social welfare standards is to be avoided.

The Betrayal of Social Europe June 2006
By Susan George
By embracing neo-liberalism as its guiding principle, the EU has chosen to sacrifice social cohesion to market-oriented ‘solutions’. The European Constitutional Treaty (ECT) was an attempt to set this direction in stone, but was rightly rejected by the people of France and the Netherlands, leaving Europeans with a slim chance to shape their future in a more positive direction. In her contribution to the encounter “What course for Europe,” Susan George analyses the undemocratic process by which the ECT was drafted, and its neo-liberal content, which would move Europe towards social dislocation. She goes on to outline several measures for the construction of what she calls a Europe of the Common Good.

• Hilary Wainwright Athenian Democracy Red Pepper, June 2006
• Hilary Wainwright The Emerging New Euroleft The Nation, April 2006
• Hilary Wainwright Europe: Bridging the Emotional Gap Red Pepper, November 2005
  European identity can be built on an emotional engagement with the idea of a democratic and egalitarian Europe, best represented by the European Social Forum and all the spreading networks and campaigns it has generated or reinforced. The social forum process explores news forms of political agency, new subjectivities and new agencies of social transformation. Its internationalism is part of a rejection of a politics organised around the nation state; it is an experiment in finding new ways of integrating the particular and the universal. Herein lies the importance of the processes Social Forums have stimulated.



• Susan George Nous, peuples d'Europe Fayard, 28 September 2005
• Susan George France's "non" marks just the beginning of the campaign Europe's World, Autumn 2005
• Interview with Susan George "Hay que cerrar los paraísos fiscales y gravar las transacciones de capital". La lucha mundial contra la pobreza El País, 27 June 2004 [Spanish]
• Hilary Wainwright The UK/US Presidency of the EU TNI Website, 15 June 2005
• Sarah Anderson and John Cavanagh After the FTAA. Lessons from Europe for the Americas IPS, 10 June 2005
• Praful Bidwai The Vote for a Gentler and More Democratic Europe Khaleej Times, 5 June 2005
• Praful Bidwai A Europe That Can Say "No" Frontline, 4 June 2005
• Roberto Elissalde Francia y Holanda dicen NO. Imposible atar todo con un libro Brecha (Montevideo), 3 June 2005
• Naima Bouteldja and Oscar Reyes Next Stop, the Netherlands The Guardian, 1 June 2005
• Naima Bouteldja and Oscar Reyes The Dutch "No" is a "Yes": Erik Wesselius Interviewed openDemocracy, 1 June 2005
• Susan George and Erik Wesselius Why French and Dutch Citizens Are Saying NO Fellows' Meeting, Amsterdam, 21 May 2005
• The EU Constitutional Treaty
• Ramón Fernández Durán Mars Vs Venus, or Dollar vs Euro? The European Constitution and the EU's Arduous Road to Becoming a
  Super-Power of Backing Up the Euro [PDF document] Madrid, July 2004
  Spanish version [PDF document]
• Interview with Susan George "Hay que cerrar los paraísos fiscales y gravar las transacciones de capital". La lucha mundial contra la pobreza El País, 27 June 2004 [Spanish]
• Dot Keet Multi-Track Strategies of the Major Powers On, and Against, Regional Integration(s) AIDC Regional Briefing 4/2004
• Sarah Anderson and John Cavanagh Lessons of European Integration for the Americas IPS, 26 February 2004
• Ramón Fernández Durán Mars Vs Venus, or Dollar vs Euro? The European Constitution and the EU's Arduous Road to Becoming a
  Super-Power of Backing Up the Euro [PDF document] Madrid, July 2004
  Spanish version [PDF document]
• Olivier Hoedeman Who Controls EU Trade and Investment? TNI Publications, Asia Europe Crosspoints 2002
• Aileen Kwa Europe's Trade Agenda at the WTO and the Positions of ASEM Developing Countries TNI Publications, Asia Europe Crosspoints 2002
• Brid Brennan Current Regionalisms TNI Website, June 2001
• New EU Treaty May Give European Commission "Fast-Track" Negotiating Authority Corporate Europe Observer, Issue 7, October 2000

Internal Links

• Alternative regionalisms' pages on EU and Latin America
• Alternative regionalisms' pages on EU and Africa
• TNI pages on the Debate on Europe
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