Economic Governance

Yearbook

    Economic Governance of the European Union: Activate the Emergency Brakes?
  • 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...

Focus

    Unconditional Basic Income. To Each According to Her or His Basic Needs
  • Basic income is not just one financial measure among many but a social, economic and civic financial amount which has a far-reaching multiplier effect in many areas of life. Basic income is a profound civilizational change on par with the introduction of universal suffrage or universal health care. Read an analysis of its key aspects.

Blog

    The Case for a National Development Bank: The Main Issues
  • The role of National Development Banks (NDBs) has been rising worldwide since the financial crisis, the global supply chain crisis, and among growing geo-political tensions. Unlike EU member states, NDBs in the European Union aren't subjected to Maastricht austerity criteria and may thus offer a major tool for the transformational policies we need.
    Reflections on Green Deal, Industrial Policies, and Geoeconomics/Geopolitics
  • The convergence of crises, including neoliberal capitalism, geopolitical conflicts, and the climate catastrophe, calls for a significant shift in EU policies. Harald Wolf explores the key factors that must be considered in redefining and reorienting the current policies to address the economic, industrial, and geopolitical challenges at hand.
    Stability and Growth Pact – Beware of the Fiscal Challenges!
  • Last week, the European Commission unveiled its long-awaited proposal to reform the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP). What does the Commission's proposal look like? Does it provide a good basis for the upcoming negotiations with the European Parliament and the Council of Governments? Marica Frangakis is rather sceptical.
    Financial Crises as Wars
  • transform! europe has launched a new Economic Working Group (EWG) in 2023 to respond to the current crises caused by late capitalism. This first article of the EWG blog series looks at some aspects of the financial crises that punctuate the history of modern capitalism.
    Money: From Feminist Economics to Feminist Utopia
  • Karin Schönpflug on why it is necessary to fundamentally modify the current financial model, and what feminist economics and feminist utopia have in common in their approaches to dismantling existing power relations in our economic system.
    Manifesto for a Green, Just and Democratic European Economy
  • transform! europe, together with more than 270 civil society organisations, academics, and other think tanks from all 27 EU Member States, is issuing the Manifesto for a Green, Just, and Democratic European Economy, calling for fundamental change of the EU’s Economic Governance Framework.
    Hundred Shades of the EU – Mapping the Political Economy of the EU Peripheries
  • “Hundred shades of the EU – Mapping the Political Economy of the EU Peripheries”, is a title of the research study, conducted by transform! europe with the support of the Rosa-Luxemburg Foundation that aims at characterizing at the socio-economic, political, and cultural levels the current existing peripheries within the European Union.
    'Amazon Method' of tax dodging exposed in new research
  • The Left in the European Parliament presents a study to analyse the ways Amazon, as one of the major multinational enterprises (MNEs), has organized its domestic and international business to minimize taxation worldwide. The researchers identify Luxembourg as the coordinating centre of a global tax dodging operation.
    Why 'pensée unique' will be misleading
  • Defining neoliberal efforts merely as market radical is misleading. The dynamic and diverse sphere of neoliberal actors, both worldwide and on a European level, makes it necessary to abjure simplistic reductions when looking at neoliberal networks. This applies in particular against the background of current post-Covid struggles.
    The 2021 Jörg Huffschmid Award
  • In memory of the scholarly work and political engagement of the critical economist Jörg Huffschmid, the call for submissions to the competitive award named after him, which seeks to recognize outstanding work in the field of Political Economy is issued; the Jörg Huffschmid Award is currently in its sixth iteration.
    You call it, if you want…evasions
  • Roberto Musacchio on recent investigations showing that the growth of tax evasion in the European Union – evasion leading to tax gaps which exceed the healthcare spending of several EU Member States, ‘often by considerable amounts‘.
    More Money – Less Solidarity: Competition of the Subsidies
  • Covid-19 has led to a dramatic economic crisis. The EU has modified the strict State aid rules to such a degree that States can now help their national economies virtually at their own discretion. What at first sounds sensible comes with a catch, however, since it results in the strong becoming even stronger and leaving poorer economies behind.
    MEPs prepare to slate summit deal and defend real recovery
  • Decrying EU leaders’ hatchet job on the long-term budget and recovery plan, the GUE/NGL group will join the vast majority in the European Parliament in passing a resolution that strongly criticises the conclusions of last weekend’s summit. The lack of ambition shown in the context of the biggest...
    Politics in the Face of a Climate Disaster
  • In 2015, when the Paris Agreement was still under negotiations, British journalist Paul Mason expressed his doubts whether the agreement would be signed and wrote that such climate conferences „resemble the peace treaties that paved the way to the Second World War."[1] Although Mason was wrong about...
    Economic Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic in the Czech Republic
  • The Czech Republic has so far fared well in containing the pandemic. However, the economic consequences of the lockdown and the rapidly worsening situation in the world economy are yet to come. This article deals with economic measures implemented to mitigate the economic consequences of the pandemic through the eyes of political economy.
    Does the EU Need ‘Coronabonds’?
  • In times of the coronavirus – just as in the 2008 financial crisis – the national state is again a central actor in Europe. Financial policy remains tied to the economic pecking order, with Germany at the very top. ‘Eurobonds’ are the key area of contention.
    Economic Democracy and Self-Governance in Enterprises
  • The conference “Economic democracy and self-governance in enterprise: history, theories, perspectives” can be considered as one of the main arrival points of the project “Democracy as self-government” in 2019, proposed to Transform!Europe by Sinistra XXI, Italian leftist think tank.
    Stop The Reform Of European Stability Mechanism
  • In Italy, a discussion developed, first in the media and then in the parliamentary halls, about the proposed reform of the European Stability Mechanism treaty, which should be approved by Eurozone leaders at the Euro summit on December 13th. The leader of the Northern League sovereign party, Matteo...
    Jörg-Huffschmid-Award 2019
  • In memoriam of the scientific work and the political engagement of the critical economist Joerg Huffschmid the call for the award that is named after him is now announced for the 5th time, awarding outstanding works in the field of Political Economy.
    Join the Change Finance coalition! With actions on the 15th September
  • On September 15th, it will be 10 years since the financial crash when US investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed - a moment in a chain of events that threatened to destroy our economies and create social chaos. Since global leaders failed to break the status quo, we are now at risk of a more dangerous collapse. See our vision for a change!

Publication

    The EU Recovery and Resilience Programmes after COVID-19
  • This eDossier summarises studies from all parts of Europe that aim to analyse how the discussions on the return of austerity policies are being conducted and whether a care society, a climate policy is in the discourse in the respective countries. And last but not least, which left alternatives to the hegemonic state projects have been developed.
    How the Czech Republic Became a Colony
  • ‘Jak jsme se stali kolonií’ was first published in 2015. It successfully undermined the myth of the ‘transformation success’ and showed that the position of the Czech Republic in the world economy is unsustainable and disadvantageous for its citizens. This eBook is an adapted and updated version for non-Czech readers.
    "New Deal" means being prepared for conflict
  • Coping with the consequences of the Corona crisis makes a socio-ecological transformation even more urgent. A look back at the New Deal of the 1930s is useful as inspiration for this. Not just at what was done, but primarily at how it was set in motion – by the economist Steffen Lehndorff, supported by transform! europe.
    The Economic Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic in the Czech Republic
  • Ilona Švihlíková, a member of the National Economic Council, provides firsthand knowledge of the proposals concerning the Czech Republic’s socio-economic situation and analyses the measures implemented to mitigate the economic consequences of the pandemic through the viewpoint of political economy.
    A Green New Deal for Europe – Opportunities and Challenges. EuroMemo 2020
  • Given its urgency, this year’s EuroMemorandum puts special emphasis on the climate crisis and other planetary boundaries. In tandem with deepening social inequalities, renascent authoritarian nationalisms and the crisis of global governance, they urgently need comprehensive and effective policy responses...
    Economic Governance in the EU after the Eurozone Crisis
  • The aim of this report is to provide a general overview of the evolution of the EU’s economic governance architecture, and in particular of the impact that the Eurozone crisis has had on that evolution, as well as to present a broad outline of its economic and political consequences.

Calendar

    Beyond Growth - Pathways Towards Sustainable Prosperity in the EU
  • The Beyond Growth 2023 Conference is a multi-stakeholder event aiming to discuss and co-create policies for sustainable prosperity in Europe, based on a systemic and transformative approach to economic, social and environmental sustainability and its encompassing governance framework. transform! europe participates as one of the supporting partners
    Neoliberal Reforms and the Political System in Albania
  • The Institute for Critique and Social Emancipation Tirana (ICSE), a partner organisation of transform! europe, is hosting a lecture followed by a discussion on Albanian economic policy during the transition from a centralised economy to an opposite economic policy extreme.
    Hundred Shades of EU: Mapping the Political Economy of Euro Peripheries
  • This workshop will provide an overview of a study on the socio-economic, political and cultural dimensions of the EU periphery, designed by transform! europe in collaboration with the Rosa-Luxemburg-Foundation. The workshop will focus on the political impact of the EU's core-periphery divide.
    Conference on Non-Capitalist Mixed Economies (Theory, History and Future)
  • The online international conference takes up non-capitalist mixed economy models as an eminently important historical experience, practical possibility and much needed prospect. The current moment of global capitalism and the evolving ecological crisis demands an organized and coherent response, one...
    Economic Reactions of EU Members States to the Covid-19 Crisis
  • transform! europe presents the results of the research programme on the economic intervention of nine European countries. An online panel in cooperation with Assoziation für Kritische Gesellschaftsforschung (AKG), an association of German-speaking social scientists.
    The Energy We Need
  • The new weekly webinar series, organized by transform! europe together with Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung Brussels and New York Offices, focused on developing internationalist visions for Green New Deal(s) that will work for the whole planet in the post-Covid era.
    Alternative Trade Rules for Climate Action
  • The new weekly webinar series, organized by transform! europe together with Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung Brussels and New York Offices, focused on developing internationalist visions for Green New Deal(s) that will work for the whole planet in the post-Covid era.

Webinars

    The Energy We Need
  • The new weekly webinar series, organized by transform! europe together with Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung Brussels and New York Offices, focused on developing internationalist visions for Green New Deal(s) that will work for the whole planet in the post-Covid era.
    Alternative Trade Rules for Climate Action
  • The new weekly webinar series, organized by transform! europe together with Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung Brussels and New York Offices, focused on developing internationalist visions for Green New Deal(s) that will work for the whole planet in the post-Covid era.