transform! europe Members’ Meeting

The annual member assembly of transform! europe, which took place in Athens from September 18 to 19, was overshadowed by the murder of the Greek musician Pavlos Fissas by a member of the neo-Nazi party “Golden Dawn”. The representatives of 18 political foundations from 14 different European countries unanimously passed a resolution demanding vigorous steps

The annual member assembly of transform! europe, which took place in Athens from September 18 to 19, was overshadowed by the murder of the Greek musician Pavlos Fissas by a member of the neo-Nazi party “Golden Dawn”. The representatives of 18 political foundations from 14 different European countries unanimously passed a resolution demanding vigorous steps against the neo-Nazis.
The meeting started with an expansion of the network. transform! denmark and the Munich-based Institute for Social and Economic Studies were confirmed as full members, the Catalan Fundació l’Alternativa and the Slovenian Institute for Labour Studies were admitted as observers. transform! europe is now constituted of 15 full members and 12 observers from a total of 19 countries. For the first time in the history of our annual meetings we could welcome representatives from the Left Forum Ireland as guests.
The Party of the European Left was represented by a delegation of four people (Maite Mola, the vice-president of the party, as well as members of the joint working group, Natassa Theodorakopoulou, Christine Mendelsohn and Pedro Marcet). Apart from the appreciation and approval they expressed in their statements, the representatives of the EL also proposed some ideas concerning collaborative future projects, which were accepted unanimously.
In the course of the two-day conference the members and observers debated an evaluation of the European crisis and drew conclusions regarding a positioning of transform! (cf pdf “transform! europe: Tasks of a Political Foundation”).
Resolutions were passed concerning the changes of the publication strategy and the structural development of the foundation.
As usual also the work schedule of transform! – which our budget is based upon – was discussed. Apart from the two main projects and a considerable number of decentralised projects, 2014 will be dedicated to the Elections to the European Parliament. This will open up possibilities for fundamental debates about left strategies in terms of European integration and is as such of course reflected in the schedule of transform! europe.