The Debate on Europe

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
  The current referenda on the European Union's Constitution will decide whether Europe goes the American way, or develops a capacity for resisting neoliberalism and militarism, writes Bidwai.
• 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
  The French "no" to the European Union constitution is stealing all the headlines, but the Netherlands’ referendum on 1 June could seal the treaty’s fate. The Dutch campaigner Erik Wesselius tells Naima Bouteldja and Oscar Reyes that a Dutch refusal would be a victory for democracy over neo-liberalism.
• Sarah Anderson and John Cavanagh Lessons of European Integration for the Americas IPS, 26 February 2004

Activities

• 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]
  In this excellent paper, which was a basis for his presentation at the TNI Seminar Another Europe is Possible, Ramón Fernández Durán charts the "European Project" born with the Treaty of Rome in 1957, from an inclusive convergence between "equals" to the present bureaucratic, neo-imperialist and anti-democratic beast it is becoming. He tracks the strong rivalry between the US and its dollar as a global currency and the rising Euro, and the EU's political and military build up to shore up its currency.
• Susan George and Erik Wesselius Why French and Dutch Citizens Are Saying NO Fellows' Meeting, Amsterdam, 21 May 2005

Related websites and documents

• Another Europe is Possible
• The EU Constitutional Treaty
• Roberto Elissalde Francia y Holanda dicen NO. Imposible atar todo con un libro Brecha (Montevideo), 3 June 2005