More than 4 thousand participants, 300 networks and organisations from 28 countries from all over Europe and beyond, met at Fortezza da Basso in Florence from November 8th to 11th, to debate and strategize together for another Europe. Over 100 meetings took place and many new networks and campaigns were launched. A call for common action and a proposed roadmap emerged from the convergence... Read more
Democracy in Europe Sphere
The EU’s response to the financial crisis and the escalating eurocrisis has led to sweeping austerity measures and privatization of public services. Corporate lobby groups see their longstanding demands implemented overnight at the expense of social rights, environmental regulation and public services. The EU’s emphasis on free markets and deregulation in the last two decades was a crucial factor in causing the current crisis. These flawed policies were heavily influenced by corporate lobbying, reflecting how big business had captured the policy-making processes in Brussels and in member states. Following the crisis, the power of the financial lobbies - and their easy access to decision-makers - has ensured that only limited regulation has been introduced. This workshop will focus on the question how to organize strong citizens counter-power, to roll back corporate capture of decision-making and build a different Europe: a Europe that strengthens democracy on all levels and refuses to be run by big business.
Speakers: Gildas (AITEC), Olivier Hoedeman (CEO), Hilary Wainwright (TNI/RedPepper) among others.
Moderator: Brid Brennan (TNI)
Languages: English and French.
Organizers: CEO, AITEC (France), TNI, ALTER-EU (Europe-wide network) and others.
The EU in Crisis Network aims to challenge the EU's authoritarian neoliberal response to the crisis and take forward alternatives; to inform the broad public of the implications of the solutions being promoted by the EU institutions - within Europe and in the global South and to lay the groundwork for pan-European resistance
Austerity, Debt, Finance and Economic governance Sphere
Across Europe onerous austerity programmes are imposed. Public expenditure is cut severely, public services are either privatized or reduced, wages are attacked on a scale not seen in decades. Behind the attacks are not only national governments, the EU institutions play a pivotal role. The attacks are met with strong resistance, particularly in Greece, Spain and Portugal. Do we need European coordination of the struggle to be effective? And if so, what kind of coordination would that be?
Among the issues: The strike on the 14th of November, European actions in 2013 including during the EU Spring Summit in late March.
Speakers: Raquel Freire (12th of March Movement, Portugal), Stefano Maruca (FIOM-CGIL), Kenneth Haar (CEO), Sonia Mitralia (CADTM-Greece), Pierre Khalfa (Fondation Copernic) and Fayna Brenes (Colectivo La Casa - Red Baladre, active in 15M and in the struggle against evictions)
Moderator: Brid Brennan (TNI)
Languages: Italian, English, French, Spanish and Greek.
Organizers: Altersummit, Fondation Copernic, TNI, CEO, CADTM and Ecologistas en Acción.
Over the past two years we've seen major reforms adopted that give ample powers to the EU institutions to impose austerity measures and attack social rights. Since the beginning of the eurocrisis we've seen the adoption of the fiscal compact, the European Semester (on member state budgets), the Europlus Pact, the six-pack, the European Stability Mechanism, all of which point in the same direction: Democracy is rolled back, and the EU is undergoing profound changes to suit the agenda of economic elites, and bureaucratic power is enhanced both in the Commission and in the European Central Bank.
How should social movements respond to this agenda? And what should be our reaction to the next steps on their agenda - the fiscal union and the banking union?
Speakers: Tom Kucharz (Ecologistas en Acción) , Erik Wesselius (Corporate Europe Observatory, CEO), Thomas Coutrot/Frèdèric Lemaire (ATTAC France), Alexis Passadakis (ATTAC-Germany).
Moderator: Susan George (Transnational Institute, TNI & ATTAC France)
Languages: Italian, English, French, and Spanish.
Organizers: CEO, TNI, Ecologistas en Acción, Action fromIreland, Observatory for Debt and Globalization (ODG).
The EU in Crisis Network aims to challenge the EU's authoritarian neoliberal response to the crisis and take forward alternatives; to inform the broad public of the implications of the solutions being promoted by the EU institutions - within Europe and in the global South and to lay the groundwork for pan-European resistance
Brussels – The European Commission is deliberately promoting privatization of water services as one of the conditions being imposed as part of bailouts, it acknowledged in a letter to civil society groups on 26 September 2012.[1] EU Commissioner Olli Rehn's directorate was responding to questions posed in an open letter concerning the European Commission’s role in imposing privatisation through... Read more
TNI and other civil society organisations, in an open letter, have denounced the European Comission's admission that it imposes water privatization conditionalities as part of its 'rescue' package to crisis countries.... Read more
Signed by 25 of 27 member states at the previous EU Summit, the “Fiscal Compact” falls into a similar pattern as the “Six Pack” on economic governance: the rule of law and the European Constitution, which at least formally grants democratic forms of participation, are shoved aside if necessary to impose European austerity politics.... Read more
What is the continuity you see between the moment of Maastricht through the Lisbon Agenda and the Lisbon Treaty, to the Six Pack and now this new Fiscal Treaty?... Read more
This significant development arose after the Irish Attorney General´s legal advice came out on 28 February that the treaty was incompatible with the Irish constitution.... Read more
Lukas Oberndorfer legal scholar in Vienna and scientific staff member of the Austrian Chamber of Labour and the legal journal juridikum (zeitschrift für kritik|recht|gesellschaft). He is co-founder of the Study Group on Critical European Studies and lecturer of the University of Vienna.
