Walter Benjamin polemicised against the naïve idea of revolutions as the locomotives of world history. In his thesis on the concept of history1 Benjamin suggested that if this locomotive, constructed by previous society, were allowed to circulate, most likely it would be heading inexorably into the...
Haris Golemis: At the time of this interview (12 December 2016), the Greek government is close to completing its second review of the third painful Memorandum of Understanding, which it was forced to agree to on July 2015. I understand that the government’s but also your view is that this evaluation...
Donald Trump’s election as the 45th President of the United States alarmed policy makers as well as the media and intellectuals all over Europe. Not only because the umbrellas have always been opened up here when rain clouds darken the skies over Washington but because the scenario very much...
After the Brexit vote, there is a sense of cluelessness, or at least irritation, in Germany, that is, in the newspapers, in political journals, in the parties represented in the Bundestag, and certainly also in the federal government. Pre-referendum polls appeared to indicate that it was alarmingly...
Sometime before the end of 2017 – and most probably in 2016 – the British people will face a referendum on the country’s membership of the European Union. The referendum was a pledge included in the Conservative Party’s manifesto, prior to the May 2015 general election, most likely to head off...
The European Union’s many crises are being expressed in all manner of centrifugal tendencies, fragmentation, and erosion. By the time of the 2008 financial crisis it became apparent that only the national governments had the capacity to act in some sort of reasonable way – not due to national...
How should the European Monetary Union be reformed?
The president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, ‘in close cooperation’ with the presidents of the European Council, the Eurogroup, the European Central Bank (ECB), and the European Parliament, has published a report entitled...
Since the European election of 2014, there has been a split across Europe’s political landscape. While in the EU’s southern countries – especially in Greece, Spain and Portugal – the growing protest against the predominant line of European policy has been articulated largely in a leftist context, a...
Literally on a daily basis, the nature of the European Union’s relations with its neighbours is called into question by the never-ending refugee drama on the EU’s southern borders, the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and the domestic struggles in Turkey and North Africa.
The EU’s self-image...
The European treaties jointly developed and voted by the right and social democracy have created a twenty-eight-key lock, which requires all keys to be turned simultaneously if any change in the fundamental direction of the Union’s policies is to take place. At the very least, since the less...
Unwelcome developments at the EU level and economic imbalances within the EU and the euro area are often at the centre of critical analyses of the European crisis. There are popular and also justified fears that these problems might cause the collapse of the currency union. However, these...
Europe is experiencing radical change. The civil war in Ukraine shows just how quickly events can take a dramatic and negative turn. That issues of domestic and foreign policy are to blame for this outburst of violence is just as true as the fact that this conflict is one between national...
Europe is shifting into greater public view. On the one hand, party political actors are announcing that social Europe is our democratic answer to globalisation. On the other hand, the process of the constitutional treaty has been blocked. In referenda and parliamentary votes, the majority of the...
Globalisation is itself nothing new in human history. However, in the last 20 years, due to the collapse of actually-existing socialism and the rapid pace of development of information technologies under the influence of the 500 biggest transcontinental private corporations who today control 52.8 %...
It would be interesting, to say the least, to know if the political, economic, social and cultural system of what is called the European Union was what the first advocates of the Pan-European concept envisaged.
The question seems all the more actual and appropriate when one considers that a United...
The failure of the project of the European political and technocratic elites to constitutionalise of the European Union (EU) obliges us to reconsider the foundations and the process of the political unification of the European states and the formation of a democratic and social Europe. The...
The Left was always internationalist. We wish to end the threat of war and the subordination of poor and weak states to the rich and powerful ones. We accept neither social and humanitarian inequality, nor the numerous unsolved international problems in the area of the environment, labour, transport...
Let us recall first of all the principal stages envisaged for the process that is supposed to lead to the future European Treaty:
On July 23, 2007, the ministers of foreign relations of the “27” met in Brussels to launch the intergovernmental conference (IGC). The new Portuguese presidency of the...
A jigsaw puzzle is a picture made up of interlocking pieces. If we think of the EU as a gigantic puzzle, then it is clear that its interlocking pieces do not fit.
In recent months dramatic changes in the EU have taken place. This article addresses the role of Germany in the multilevel governance structure of the EU.
Dimitris Sotiropoulos notes quite rightly that the Euro is not just a currency, but a mechanism: “It has set up a particular form of symbiosis among different capitalist economies” (Sotiropoulos 2012, 66). But what is the material nature of this “symbiosis among different capitalist economies”?
As this autumn begins, the governments of member countries of the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union (EMU) are struggling to ratify as quickly as possible the EMU’s Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance (the so-called Budgetary Pact).
1. Facts and documents
As in every crisis, capitalism’s ruling elites, in order, among other things, to manage the current economic-financial crisis, are redesigning the institutions, which is what is happening in the EU with the Euro Plus Pact, the Six Pack and now with the Treaty on Stability,...
“... the task arises is not merely to criticize the policy of the ruling classes [...] from the standpoint of the existing society itself, but also to contrast existing society as its every move with the socialist ideal of society [...]” - Rosa Luxemburg, Social Democracy and Parliamentarism (1904)...
The Euro-zone is undergoing a crucial test. A number of member states are unable to get out of the debt trap on their own. The major reason for the record deficits has to do with the superiority of the German economy, which right from the start has been the major exporter both of goods and of...
“Time is the delimiter of human development. A person who has no free time at his disposal, whose whole lifetime – aside from the mere physical interruptions of sleep, meals and so on – is taken up by his work for the capitalists, is less than a beast of burden. He is a mere machine for the...
The EU’s Open Method of Coordination (OMC) seems to exist in a world of its own, outside of the real social welfare debate. Proven ineffectiveness in its core area – combating poverty – is combined with an apparently naïve faith in the power of consensus and the need to set a good example.
People are not equal, but all people need to be accorded equal value. And it is just this equal value that is permanently in danger, not only for traditional reasons like natural disasters, wars and slavery, but also as a result of a colonial history, geographic differences and, last but not least, today’s free market.
The GUE /NGL and EL suffered a defeat. Except for some notable exceptions – Portugal, Slovenia, and Belgium – and our having maintained significant electoral strength in Greece and Cyprus we lost across the board. Moreover, we must acknowledge that except for the Czech Republic we have no MEPs in the vast space of Central and Eastern Europe.
Find here Gabi Zimmer's talk at the European seminar organised by transform! europe and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, 12-14 June 2019, reflecting the new political conditions in the aftermath of the European elections.
The EP elections were a victory for a neo-liberal agenda and to a much lesser degree for a green one, although here - as in some other EU member countries - the vote for “green” parties served to reduce the vote f0r the radical left.
On Sunday, 26th of May, Slovenia voted for its MEPs for the fourth time since they became the first former Yugoslav Republic to join the EU on 1st of May 2004. At the same time, this is the second time that a contestant in the elections was a party which is a member of the Party of the European Left.
The ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) won a significant victory in the European elections in Poland, strengthening its position in the run up to this Auturmn’s national parliamentary elections. This was despite the fact that many of the opposition parties stood in a single coalition against PiS. The remaining left and liberal parties were marginal
The ruling party GERB won the European Parliament elections in Bulgaria with 31.07% of the votes. Second is the BSP (Bulgarian Socialist Party) with 24.26%, while the third is the Movement of rights and freedoms (DPS) with 16.55% (which candidate was Delyan Peevsky – the person that provoked huge...
As broadly anticipated in the pre-election piece on Romania, the country’s main right-wing party won the European elections, the National Liberal Party (EPP), which gathers most elements of previous right-wing governments, gained nearly 27% of the votes. On second place came the Social Democratic...
The main result of EP elections in Lithuania could be summed up as a pro-EU anti right-wing populism victory. None of the anti-EU agencies got any seats in the EU parliament. The very high turnout (53.08%) was a result of the second round of very popular Presidential election, but also of...
The clear sanction of the Liberal-Conservative government in the legislative, regional and European elections on May 26 took a radically different form in different parts of the country. While the Flemish (60% of the population) massively voted for the far right, it is the radical and ecological left that triumphs in Brussels and Wallonia.
One day after the elections, it is still difficult to comprehend fully the results of yesterday’s predicament. On thing is definitely clear, the left has been deeply defeated. The first surprise of the European elections has been the higher than expected turnout. Indeed, while every polling stations...
The electoral system
The UK electoral system for the European election was the D’Hondt system of PR which traditionally rewards the party receiving the highest vote disproportionately and this has again become the case with the Brexit Party only receiving 33% of the vote but almost 50% of the...
The biggest losers of the 2019 EP election were probably the Hungarian public opinion polls, who basically signaled only the total success of the ruling parties (FIDESZ-KDNP) correctly, the results of the opposition forces were completely misled.
Finland elects 13 MEPs (14 after Brexit). The whole country is one constituency and there is no barrier, expcept the number of MEPs. In practice, around 6% of votes is enough for one seat, 12% for two seats and 18% for three seats. A voter need to elect a candidate which belongs to party list or...
The social democratic PvdA has come out as the surprise winner of the EP elections in the Netherlands. The left Socialist Party looses its two seats and the Party for the Animals looses one seat.
The lead candidates (spitzenkandidaten) for the European Commission’s presidency from the Party of European Socialists, the Party of European Left, the European Green Party, and ‘European Spring’, gave answers to Progressive Caucus’s 10 points for a political debate, ahead of the European elections,...
The Hungarian member of the Party of the European Left, the Workers‘ Party 2006 is not running for EP elections this time. Instead they call to vote for the Socialist party (S&D) which is projected to gain 11% and 3 seats. Read here the cooperation agreement on the election campaign between the two parties with a focus on energy strategy.
A few weeks before the European Parliament (EP) elections a new alliance of right-wing populists is taking shape. Italy’s Vice-Premier, Minister of the Interior, and head of the Lega, Matteo Salvini, introduced the EP group European Alliance of Peoples and Nations.
DIE LINKE and the French Communist Party are appealing to progressive forces, unionists and social movements to vote for the Left in the upcoming EP elections.
The experiences in Hungary, Poland, Austria and elsewhere make clear the antidemocratic character of these right-wing extremist parties, which, once in government, infiltrate the state apparatus in order to take precautions against their being deprived of power again. Is it possible to speak, in a scientific sense, of a fascist danger in Europe?
At the meeting of the Executive Board of the Party of the European Left Party on 26-27 January 2019 in Brussels, the top candidates for the European elections were voted. In addition, the election platform was confirmed.
Progressive Caucus’s event in the European Parliament: With the participation of the Presidents Udo Bullmann (Socialists), Ska Keller (Greens), Gabi Zimmer (Left), and representatives from the parties SYRIZA (Greece), RAZEM (Poland), Generation.s (France), Ecolo (Belgium)
High quality debates among people from different starting points aiming to find a common ground for a Europe of the people. A seminar that tried not to give definitive answers, but to pose at least the right questions.
transform! europe and the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung staged a Workshop in Berlin under the title: “State of Affairs in Europe” in July 2016. Political scientists and actors were invited to debate the possibilities for common perspectives and action of the Left in Europe.
This seminar is one of the cornerstones of the strong and stable cooperation between transform! europe and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and takes place every year aiming to tackle crucial strategic question for the European left forces and the radical left strategy towards the European Integration.
The EU Treaty changes we need, and why we need them.– This study is an invitation to engage in dialogue for all those who are interested in an alternative development of the European Union and its integration.
The decision of the Labour Party’s electorate to elect Jeremy Corbyn Labour leader for the second time within 12 months was a temporary victory for the left of the party and gives it a respite. Despite the continuous attacks against Corbyn after the shock outcome of the Brexit referendum, the new old new chairman has been able to strengthen his position in the party.
European Integration is currently undergoing its most difficult phase since the Treaties of Rome entered into force. The European Union (EU) has shown itself incapable of dealing with the structural flaws inherent to the Maastricht Economic and Monetary Union.
A number of Leftist conferences recently convened in Paris, Berlin and Madrid addressed the issue of an alternative plan for Europe. We as transform! were present in all the events as we believe that an open and comeradely debate without any taboos is necessary.
Alexis Tsipras won the battle on a question of principle – the need for a new Europe – even if he lost the war that ensued. What are the implications for the Greek left and for Europe?
After five months of negotiations conducted in an authoritarian and arrogant manner, 18 heads of state and government of the Euro-group under the leadership of Germany’s finance minister, have forced an agreement on Greece’s democratically elected government that contradicts SYRIZA’s electoral programme and negates the results of the July 5 referendum.
Who has such “partners” doesn’t need enemies no more. Greece’s conservative and social-democratic “partners” in the EU and in the eurozone on July 12 have during 17 hours shot with smoking guns on the Greek government and have not missed their target. Read here the whole article in German...
The Greek Dilemma and Us. Nine provisional considerations after both the popular Oxi and Syriza’s Yes to the Memorandum. This is being written after the vote in the Greek parliament and before the final decision of the Eurogroup. At the moment, everything is open, and we are certain of only a couple of things. Almost everything can change, but some things will remain true.
Here the full text of the proposals submitted by the Greek Government and signed by Alexis Tsipras on Monday this week. After an initial cheer by the lenders, the proposals were finally rejected on Wednesday, 24 June.
On 20 February, as news of the Brussels deal came through, Germany claimed victory and it is no surprise that most of the working press bought the claim. They have high authorities to quote and to rely on. Thus from London The Independent reported: “several analysts agreed that the results of the talks amounted to a humiliating defeat for Greece.”
With its EP14 project, transform! europe covers in cooperation with Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and the French journal Regards the European Parliament elections from a left perspective.
Find the election results of all EU countries, election analysis, comments and graphs on the respective country...
On 10 April 2014, the Party of the European Left (EL) and transform! europe jointly organized an International Conference in Brussels. The aim of the meeting was to explore the alternatives to solve the problem of the debt and stop the austerity policies.
Within the left wing of the Left, there is much debate about Europe and the euro. Should we exit from the euro? Should we secede from the European Union? Many claim that any action within the Union is doomed to failure.
At its fifth congress held in Berlin in 2016, the Party of the European Left (EL) decided to set up an annual forum of progressive forces with the aim of being able to intervene more effectively in European public debate.
On 30 October the Madrid City Council approved the celebration on 23 August of the Day of European Remembrance of the Victims of Stalinism and Nazism to pay homage to the victims of the communist and National Socialist regimes and other totalitarian and authoritarian regimes’, following an initiative promoted by the ultra-right group Vox.
This is a first in the balance of power between the Commission – the EU executive – and the European Parliament. Even before the scrutiny of the candidates for the future College of Commissioners, headed by Ursula von der Leyen, began on 30 September, two candidates were blocked by a majority of...
The board of transform! europe launches the following open letter regarding the resolution 'Europe must remember its past to build its future', adopted by the majority of the European Parliament – rejected by the GUE/NGL group.
As Turkish troops prepare to invade the Kurdish autonomous areas in northeast Syria, Left MEP Özlem Demirel (DIE LINKE, Germany) appealed for urgent efforts to put a stop to the threat.
“The European Union and the international community must condemn in the strongest terms this aggressive and...
On left silence and the foreign-policy motivation behind the revision of history contained in the European Parliament's resolution. Read Luciana Castellina's comment.
Last Thursday the European Parliament adopted by majority the resolution on the Importance of European remembrance for the future of Europe. Read the statement of the International Federation of Resistance Fighters Association of Anti-fascists on this "ideological relapse into the worst times of the cold war".
Before today’s vote on Christine Lagarde’s nomination as head of the European Central Bank, we offer you eight good reasons why she is unsuitable for the post.
Manon Aubry (La France Insoumise, France) and Martin Schirdewan (DIE LINKE, Germany) are the new co-presidents of the GUE/NGL group in the European Parliament.
After the meeting with German Minister of Defence and nominee to the role of President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, GUE/NGL decided not to support her candidacy.
The President of the European Left, Gregor Gysi, declared at the Executive-Board meeting in Berlin:
The election results of the European elections are both a warning and an invitation to us to make the European Left more attractive and to improve the value of our policies through better...
GUE/NGL presents the 10 priorities that the new presidents of the European Commission and the European Parliament should commit to during their mandates.
“With their nominations for the four senior EU roles, the Council of the heads of government of the EU member states, with Angela Merkel leading the way, did the EU a disservice and casually dropped the principle of appointing only the top candidate of a parliamentary group,”, says Martin Schirdewan, interim group chairman of DIE LINKE in the EP.
Housing is a human right and not a commodity. A European Citizens’ Initiative demands better EU legislation for affordable, public and social housing in Europe.
As the European election approaches, it is noteworthy to acknowledge the almost non-existence of the issue of the current institutional design of the EU institutions in the public debate.
Faced with the choice in Britain between a free-market, xenophobic Brexit and a neoliberal, exclusionary EU, it is useful to learn from the experience of a government that has succeeded in challenging neoliberal austerity from within the EU. In Portugal, just such a government is coming to the end...
Last week, a group of refugees arrived in Brussels to hold a demonstration outside the European External Action Service, European Council and the European Commission, after they cycled the 475-kilometre route from Frankfurt, aiming to raise awareness of the situation of asylum seekers currently trapped in Libya.
A vote that gives the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (FRONTEX) unprecedented powers overwhelmingly recently passed in the European Parliament – giving this opaque EU body unrivalled powers and unchecked accountability.
On 23 June 2016, the electorate of the United Kingdom and Gibraltar voted to decide if the country should remain a member of, or leave, the European Union. The referendum was a Conservative Party manifesto commitment in the general election of May 2015. The Prime Minister and leader of the...
Brexit is an enormous political crisis, and the UK is in parliamentary deadlock. At the moment, there is no majority either for leaving or staying. Repeated votes are taken on a range of options on a regular basis but only opposition to a No Deal Brexit has commanded a majority. A brief overview on the current developments follows.
“I am satisfied with the Council’s compromise because a chaotic Brexit next week is now off the table. EU citizens in the UK and British in the EU can breathe a small sigh of relief.
However, the problem remains: should the House of Commons reject the proposed Withdrawal Agreement again, then there...
In December, the conservative government ordered 3,500 troops to go on standby in case Britain crashes out of the European Union without a deal. Plans originally published by Theresa May as a scare tactic, to force her MPs to vote the deal through parliament, are now being activated for real.
Transform! Europe and all its member and observer organizations have committed themselves to create spaces for radical progressive dialogue and debates and assist the affiliated parties throughout Europe in their race towards the EP elections.
Numerous political leaders from all over the world are gathered these days in Marrakech, under the auspices of the UN, to sign a new migration agreement: the Global Compact for Migration. Migration has become one of the political priorities at a global scale and the richest areas of the world are all adopting similar xenophobic measures.
The relationship of the EU to the rest of the world is primarily based on trade. The role a new Europe should play in a better world therefore primarily needs to be based on a new trade policy. What are relevant points if we discuss the trade policy of Europe[1]?
This conference, held in Lisbon last October, aimed at debating and tracing possible areas of cooperation between social and political actors amongst the Southern European Left.
Following the debate during the General Assembly in September, the board of transform! europe agreed in its Conclave on 16/17 October on the following bullet points, outlining our common understanding about transform!’s strategy for the coming months.
A critique of radical -and by now mainstream- anti-immigrant populism in Europe based solemnly on ideals of liberal-humanitarianism, without a systemic critique of capital is misleading in many respects. Such Analysts and commentators fail to understand properly or they just ignore, why...
On the 12th September Juncker, the President of the European Commission (COM) and member of the Christian democratic party family, held his important “State of the Union” speech. Even if the speech might not be too fascinating itself, it is highly relevant as it provides the COM with strategic direction on what to concentrate its work on.
Despite moderate growth rates, the EU isn’t well. While the social disparities within and between the individual states continue to grow, it has opted for an increase of its military expenditures and tries to make up its obvious lack of internal cohesion with an ever more aggressive policy against migrants and refugees.
An article by Viera Hudečková based on an intervention made at The International Conference “Another EU is necessary and possible” organised by the Party of the European Left on the 12th of May 2018, Sofia, Bulgaria.
The perception of the EU’s ‘Eastern wing’ by the so-called ‘old Europe’ seems to be going through a change. It has quickly become a target of Western criticism in the crisis’s aftermath.
The hundredth anniversary of Poland gaining independence raises many emotions. Over the past two years the right-wing discourse, including on historical and contemporary issues, as well as the future of Poland in a Europe in crisis, has dominated in Poland.
As illustrated by the last economic crisis and by the way its effects have been handled in Greece, the European Union acts as a crutch to protect the market’s flawed logics against democracy. As a new banking crisis of unprecedented magnitude now looms, something must be done urgently.
Two months ago, on 25 July, the Greek government borrowed 3 billion Euros in the bond market at the very high rate of 4.625%. There was a big debate in the media, the Parliament and generally the Greek public space on whether this “exploratory” exit to the markets was a success of the Tsipras government.
A jauntier Juncker than usual held the stage in the Strasbourg auditorium with a highly optimistic speech on the state of the Union. He wanted to go way beyond the appraisals contained in the latest ECB bulletin.
The political crisis, which, 60 years after the signing of the Treaty of Rome, haunts Europe, is heavy and resists any easy interpretation.- Speech at the event ‘A Europe for the People and by the People’ at the Rome University during the mobilisations on occasion of the Rome Treaty celebrations.
Nobody, of course, can deny the significance for Europe of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union. However, my view is that this historic event with its unknown consequences for the future of European integration is only a symptom of the general turmoil prevailing in Europe since the outbreak of the systemic crisis in 2008.
Talk at the Summer University of PCF. – The dilemma of Europe is real. On the one hand, it is clear that Europe cannot continue in the same track, something that Britain’s referendum has underscored; of course, the No targeted not only the EU but also Britain’s political class, thus demonstrating that the failure of the neoliberal model threatens not only the European Union but also its Member States.
On 23rd June 2016, Britain voted to leave the European Union – the so-called Brexit vote. On a turn out of 72.2%, 51.9% voted to Leave and 48.1% to Remain, thereby defeating the position of both Cameron’s Conservative government and the Labour Party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. This was a hard fought campaign, with its fair share of lies and dirty tricks.
As the British referendum campaign on EU membership enters its final days, the tension and anger is palpable. Traditional fault lines in politics are breaking down as the divisions over Remain or Leave cross and re-cross through parties and movements where typically in a general election period sympathies would be predictable and tolerated.
The United Kingdom's EU referendum, which takes place on 23 June, provides a challenge to the Left. It should be answered by a “remain” vote, together with the rallying cry for #AnotherEurope, a better Europe.
Call for support for the EuroMemorandum 2016, which critically analyses recent economic developments in Europe and emphasises the strong need for an alternative economic policy that is based on the principles of democratic participation, social justice and environmental sustainability.
It is true that the European Union, or rather its predecessors, the European Coal and Steel Community, the EEC and the EC, have never been the projects for peace and human rights as which they were introduced to us. Those have to be disappointed now who allowed themselves to be deceived.
The case of Greece, the austerity policies imposed by the Eurogroup and the fact that hardliners in the governments of Germany and other countries have been blackmailing the Greek government to implement neoliberal programmes have led to discussions about the stance of DIE LINKE (Germany’s main left-wing party) on the currency union and the European Union, as well as the idea of withdrawing from the eurozone.
Alexis Tsipras won the battle on a question of principle – the need for a new Europe – even if he lost the war that ensued. What are the implications for the Greek left and for Europe?
After five months of negotiations conducted in an authoritarian and arrogant manner, 18 heads of state and government of the Euro-group under the leadership of Germany’s finance minister, have forced an agreement on Greece’s democratically elected government that contradicts SYRIZA’s electoral programme and negates the results of the July 5 referendum.
The Greek Dilemma and Us. Nine provisional considerations after both the popular Oxi and Syriza’s Yes to the Memorandum. This is being written after the vote in the Greek parliament and before the final decision of the Eurogroup. At the moment, everything is open, and we are certain of only a couple of things. Almost everything can change, but some things will remain true.
Here the full text of the proposals submitted by the Greek Government and signed by Alexis Tsipras on Monday this week. After an initial cheer by the lenders, the proposals were finally rejected on Wednesday, 24 June.
On the eve of a week of final negotiations between Greece and its creditors, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, defends the actions of his government in an article published yesterday in “LeMonde.fr”.
On 20 February, as news of the Brussels deal came through, Germany claimed victory and it is no surprise that most of the working press bought the claim. They have high authorities to quote and to rely on. Thus from London The Independent reported: “several analysts agreed that the results of the talks amounted to a humiliating defeat for Greece.”
On 10 April the Party of the European Left (EL) and transform! europe jointly organized an International Conference in Brussels. The aim of the meeting was to explore the alternatives to solve the problem of the debt and stop the austerity policies.
Every campaign constitutes a learning process, a process of individual and collective appropriation and of a gain in consciousness. For us it involves promoting the appropriation by citizens of European-level issues so that they can take a position corresponding to their interests. In order to be effective in 2014 we have to fully deploy new arguments.
2014 will be a crucial year in the development of the European Union. The elections for the European Parliament taking place in May will offer the possibility for the European populations to give their verdict on the policies by which the European Union has responded to the crisis.
Who could ignore the fact that today war between France and Germany is something unthinkable? The members of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee impute this as an asset item to the EU and add in this context one of the main motivations of Europe’s populations in favour of the European construction: The preservation of peace among the member states and the commitment for global peace.
After the European Central Bank (ECB) had decided a new programme to buy bonds of states hit by the crisis and subject to a programme of austerity, the stock markets burst into euphoric fireworks. Does that signify that with the new stage of fiscal politics the Gordian knot of the persistent crisis...
On 15 September about a million people, all over Portugal (and even in front of Portuguese embassies in major European cities), walked out into the streets to protest against the Troika, austerity policies and the government implementing them.
The year 2008 is conventionally considered to mark the start of a financial crisis that shook the foundations of the advanced capitalist world, starting from the USA and spreading to Europe with the speed of a wildfire. Indeed, the collapse of ‘Lehman Brothers’, a US based investment bank, on 15...
This publication is the documentation of the seminar organised by transform! and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in June 2019, right after the European Elections.
The EP elections brought a strengthening of extreme-right parties. This paper takes a closer look at the party manifestos for the elections to the European Parliament of five of those extreme-right parties by comparing their positions towards the EU, EU integration and „Europe“ in general.
At the 2018 Summer University of transform! europe and the European Left Party in Vienna, the discussion regarding the best monetary system for the EU represents one of the most hotly discussed debates in left circles - hardly surprising, given the relevance of this issue.
Since trade and investment policies are of immense importance for our lives and political work transform! europe offers you this brochure on trade policy.
Since the Brexit decision, the only political project that the neoliberal elites in the EU and its member states are pursuing is the multidimensional militarisation of the EU. In this situation, transform! europe has gathered a collective of authors to stimulate discussion among European left parties and movements about this daring development.
Despite the return to modest economic growth in the EU and the Euro group the scars of the economic crisis persist. The European Union still operates in a crisis mode. Inside the Left a debate on how to cope with the crisis of European integration has begun.
As the German playwright Bertolt Brecht once noted, ‘Thought is something that follows from difficulties and precedes action’. The European Union is in difficulties. So too is the Left.
There has been a lot of talk of a new Cold War between the West and Russia, even though the metaphor itself is not appropriate in today’s globalised context. It is not a very fitting analytical description. Firstly, there is no clear ideological and systemic struggle between Russia and the West.
On 13 and 14 October, transform! with the support of GUE/NGL organizes a workshop which aims to analyze the New Economic Governance status quo of the European Union under the multiple perspectives of the radical left.