Europe

EU-Tunisia negotiations: Free trade without trading freedoms?

14 May 2018 - by FTDES

Spring 2018 is about to see two fundamental negotiations for Tunisia conducted between representatives of Tunisia and the European Union (EU). First, during the week of April the 17th, negotiations will be held on the readmission of migrants and the facilitation of visa applications for a small (...)
The EU caught in the trap of Nigeria’s refusal to sign the West Africa Economic Partnership Agreement and the Continental Free Trade Area

9 May 2018 - by Jacques Berthelot

The EU caught in the trap of Nigeria’s refusal to sign the West Africa Economic Partnership Agreement and the Continental Free Trade Area On April 9, 2018 President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria very explicitly stated to the new Ambassador of the European Union (EU), Ketil Iversen Karlsen, who (...)
How mainstream media deal about public debt issues

3 April 2018 - by Eric Toussaint

Éric Toussaint, spokesperson for the CADTM, refers here to the partial approach to the public debt issue developed by mainstream media at an international level: they never include the deleterious consequences of repaying public debt on people’s lives and on human rights in heavily indebted (...)
International Women’s Day Declaration, 2018

1 March 2018 - by World March of Women

On the 8th of March2018, International Women’s Day, we from the World March of Women, diverse women from all peoples, races and ages, come together once again to reaffirm that we will keep marching until we are all free from all the oppression from the patriarchal, capitalist and colonial (...)
The EU chooses to defend big capital and not majority interest: Serbia is not the only guinea pig

10 January 2018 - by Eric Toussaint, Stefan Slavković

Éric Toussaint granted this interview to Stefan Slavković from the Serbian weekly NIN. Eric Toussaint has been writing on international financial systems for a few decades now. He believes that everyone should be able to understand, comprehensively and effortlessly, how these systems work. (...)
An Agenda for Europe: The struggle for the solution of the debt and the Euro

22 December 2017 - by Francisco Louça

In this brief text I reflect on the international context and the European crisis on the basis of the experience of Portugal under the Troika and the political change that has happened since then. The first part presents a map for 2016, the second deals with Europe, the struggle for the (...)
The euro crisis and contradictions between countries in the periphery and centre of the European Union

17 November 2017 - by Eric Toussaint

The crisis that started in the United States in 2007-2008, hit the European Union head on in 2008, and has been causing major problems in the eurozone since 2010. Banks from the strongest European countries are responsible for spreading this plague from the United States to Europe, because (...)
The European Union against Europe: Disobeying and Walking

8 November 2017 - by Daniel Albarracín

The purpose of this presentation is to contribute with some elements of the debate, focusing on the strategies that the progressive political forces in Europe has been developing. Debating with them we will try to build a useful proposal to open a path to break with the straitjacket of the Euro (...)
ECB’s odious profits on the backs of the Greek people

17 October 2017 - by Eric Toussaint

Mario Draghi recently acknowledged that euro zone central banks had accumulated €7.8 bn in profits thanks to the Greek bonds the ECB (European Central Bank) bought in 2010-2012 as part of the SMP (Securities Markets Programme). To this must be added other amounts not mentioned by the President (...)
Colonialism’s new clothes: The EU’s Economic Partnership Agreements with Africa

22 August 2017 - by GRAIN

Since 2002, African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries have negotiated a reciprocal free trade agreement known as the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU). While it was marketed as the magic bullet towards the ACP countries’ industrialisation and development, it (...)
Back to the Future of Austerity and Debtocracy!

15 May 2017 - by Leonidas Vatikiotis

The SYRIZA-ANEL made a deal with the creditors, signed in May 2, that was met with a great deal of enthusiasm from the markets. It is an agreement that will increase poverty and over-indebtedness, and will deal a blow to the country’s sovereign rights. The staff level agreement which will be (...)
France, Presidential Elections : Ten Proposals to Beat the European Union

18 April 2017 - by Eric Toussaint, Costas Lapavitsas, Stathis Kouvelakis, Olivier Besancenot, Zoe Konstantopoulou, Miguel Urbán Crespo, Marina Albiol, Teresa Rodríguez, Rommy Arce, Angela Klein

It is again clear from the current election campaign in France that a large proportion of the population wants left-wing radical solutions to exit the crisis. The impressive number of people attending Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s rallies and joining his movement La France Insoumise is evidence enough as (...)
Opening the vaults: the use of tax havens by Europe’s biggest banks

7 April 2017 - by Oxfam

This report from Oxfam on the EU banking sector provides just a glimpse into the harm that tax abuse is causing across the world. The findings are stark: The 20 biggest European banks register around one in every four euros of their profits in tax havens, an estimated total of €25bn in 2015. (...)
2007-2017: Causes of a Ten-Year Financial Crisis

30 March 2017 - by Eric Toussaint

The first institutions specializing in mortgage loans started to default in the US in February-March 2007. According to a report published by the Union of Swiss banks (UBS) in March 2017, “between 2002 and 2008, global debt of the corporate, household, government and financial sectors (...)
Summit Statement: A Plan B for the EU and the Euro Zone

28 March 2017 - by Collective

The European leaders commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome while the European Union (EU) is falling apart. They decided to address the EU crisis by preparing for a new Treaty. And meanwhile, boost enhanced cooperation initiatives in a Europe of “multiple layers” as evidenced by (...)
Stop the ECB subsidising climate disaster

8 March 2017 - by Corporate Europe Observatory

Economic policy should contribute to the fight against social injustice and climate change, not support polluters and speculators. Since June 2016, the European Central Bank (ECB) has injected around 67 billion euro into the Eurozone economy to fund corporate bond purchases. This is part of a (...)
The Bail Out Business

22 February 2017 - by Transnational Institute, Sol Trumbo Vila, Matthijs Peters

The Bail Out Business is the most comprehensive and thorough analysis of the steps taken since the 2008 financial crisis to understand who benefits from rescue packages in the EU. Above all, it highlights the role of the Big Four (audit firms) and a small coterie of financial consultancy firms (...)
Ten Proposals to Beat the European Union

21 February 2017 - by Eric Toussaint, Costas Lapavitsas, Stathis Kouvelakis, Olivier Besancenot, Zoe Konstantopoulou, Miguel Urbán Crespo, Marina Albiol, Teresa Rodríguez, Rommy Arce, Angela Klein

This collective text (full list of signatories here) initiated by Eric Toussaint, of the CADTM campaign for the abolition of the debt of the global South has been collectively discussed and co-signed by personalities and activists from more than 15 European countries representing a wide range (...)
The Challenges of the Left in the Eurozone

18 February 2017 - by Eric Toussaint, Costas Lapavitsas, Stathis Kouvelakis, Olivier Besancenot, Zoe Konstantopoulou, Miguel Urbán Crespo, Marina Albiol, Teresa Rodríguez, Rommy Arce, Angela Klein

This important text, signed by more than 70 european personnalities, is available here. Below is the list of signatures. Signatures : AUSTRIA Christian Zeller, professor of economic geography, University of Salzburg BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA Tijana Okic, philosopher BELGIUM Olivier (...)
What to do in Europe? Proposals from the Left

19 January 2017 - by EReNSEP

These are critical moments for Europe. It is clear that the Economic and Monetary Union has irrevocably failed, the economies of the periphery of Europe remain in severe crisis, and the economies of the core lack any impetus. The single currency has become a tool for Germany to implement (...)
For people’s seizure of power: Ten proposals to avoid a repetition of the Greek capitulation

5 January 2017 - by Eric Toussaint

I propose ten measures for the people’s seizure of power, ascertaining that the experience of the Greek capitulation of 2015 is not revisited. The first proposal: a left-wing government must disobey the European Commission (EC) in a very transparent manner with prior announcements. The party, (...)
The ECB’s ‘quantitative easing’ funds multinationals and climate change

20 December 2016 - by Corporate Europe Observatory

Corporate Europe Observatory has decoded the list of beneficiaries of the European Central Bank’s corporate bond purchasing scheme. The results are disturbing, unless you think oil, fancy cars, motorways, champagne, and gambling are good places to put public money. In June 2016 the European (...)
The euro and the debt crisis

25 November 2016 - by Eric Toussaint

Copenhagen, 19th November 2016 Internationalist summit for a Plan B in Europe At the beginning of the decade of the 2000s, the integration into the Eurozone generated a huge flux of finances from the core economies to the periphery: Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Slovenia, etc. The big (...)
Europe: No “LEXIT” without “Another Europe Possible” - based on struggles in/outside/against the EU

22 September 2016 - by Catherine Samary

Since the Greek trauma – both the neo-colonial diktat from the Euro-group and agreement by Tsipras to submit despite the popular OXI – the European radical left has debated “Plans B” without any strategic or tactical consensus. The referendum in the United Kingdom (UK) is the bitter illustration of (...)
Restructuring of Europe: Greece Was the Prologue

29 August 2016 - by George Souvlis, Elias Ioakimoglou

Austerity experiments in Greece set the stage for a radical restructuring of Europe by elites. By now, the story of Syriza’s capitulation to the European creditor institutions is well-known. Syriza came to power in January 2015 with a mandate to resist the imposition of austerity. Instead, (...)