Remembering Paweł Adamowicz: we must not let hate take over
Last Sunday, January 13, during the finale of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity – the biggest Polish annual charity event – in Gdańsk, a Polish city known as the cradle of “Solidarity” movement, its Mayor, Paweł Adamowicz was brutally attacked and stabbed by knife in front of thousands of citizens. After striking blows, the attacker turned to the gathered crowd and shouted a short speech full of hate and accusations against Civic Platform – the political party to which Adamowicz belonged up to 2015.
Despite doctors’ struggles it was not possible to save the Mayor’s life – on Monday afternoon they informed public opinion about his death.
Paweł Adamowicz had been a part of Polish politics and ruled Gdańsk for many years. He didn’t agree on xenophobia, homophobia, racism, nationalism and aggression. He was able to stand with the victims. He stood undoubtedly for integration and openness for refugees and migrants. He showed respect towards people from other environments than his own. Being many times the aim of threats he distinctly protested against hate speech.
This brutal attack on his life followed directly his speech to happy and smiling citizens of his city, in which he thanked them for their generosity and mass participation in charity for sick children in need. His last words were: “It’s time to share good.”
We connect in pain with the family and friends of Mayor Adamowicz, with citizens of Gdańsk and all the Polish people shook by this tragedy.
Our thoughts are with all Polish citizens who want to commemorate Mayor Adamowicz and go out on the streets in silent protest marches against hate and aggression of which he became a victim. Today we say along with all of them: No more aggression, no more hate.
By DiEM25/Razem
COP24: Another Climate Cop-Out
The 24th Conference of Parties of the UNFCCC concluded in Katowice, Poland, on December 15. Its goal was to hammer out the details of the 2015 Paris agreement.
But far too little was achieved — and with climate destruction on the horizon, Katowice will mostly be remembered for the common “rulebook” of procedures and guidelines that delegates adopted there.
Indeed, current commitments (for GHG emissions reduction) are woefully inadequate for achieving the agreed Paris goal of keeping global warming below 1.5 to 2ºC. The urgent need to ramp up commitments was merely hinted at in Katowice. And the possibility of meeting even current commitments remains remote.
Major stumbling blocks
Ineffective mechanisms
Emissions reduction mechanisms are mainly of two types: Fee & Dividend (F&D) and Cap & Trade (C&T).
The F&D approach consists of a rising carbon tax, with the revenue redistributed to all citizens. It is more cost-effective and efficient than C&T. And unlike C&T it applies across the board, is not prone to lobbying by industry or profiteering by financial services, and is pro-poor. Yet governments, driven by powerful lobbies, are pushing C&T despite its utter inefficacy, inherent instability and loopholes.
Commitments not legally binding
There are no penalties for non-compliance¹ and emissions have actually been rising in countries with voluntary commitments.
Equity concerns
The principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibility and Respective Capacities — or CDRRC — was omitted from the “rulebook”. Based on the huge differences in responsibility for climate change as well as capacity to combat its consequences, CDRRC calls for larger cuts from the largest historical emitters and assistance for adaptation and mitigation in poorer countries.
The Bottom Line
Carbon-free energy needs to be made cheaper than fossil fuel without burdening the weak. This is what DiEM25 and European Spring propose, for a 65% reduction in GHG emissions by 2030:
- In line with the F&D approach, a pan-European carbon tax paid into a European Equity Depository, redistributed to all citizens as part of a Universal Citizens’ Dividend
- In line with CDRRC the carbon tax would be based on the country’s Human Development Index. It would be lower in poorer countries, and they can generate additional revenue from export taxes
- Phasing out Europe’s fossil fuel subsidies (estimated at €112 billion per year) to make carbon-free energy relatively cheap and (along with other fiscal measures) generate funding for the green transition
- Redirecting CAP (Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy) subsidies to sustainable farming practices to reduce emissions from agriculture
¹ However, a recent legal precedent in the Netherlands offers hope, if repeated in larger countries.
Don't extradite Assange! (petition)
To the governments of Ecuador and UK
Julian Assange, through Wikileaks, has done the world a great service in documenting American war crimes, its spying on allies and other dirty secrets of the world’s most powerful regimes, organisations and corporations. This has not endeared him to the American deep state. Both Obama, Clinton and Trump have declared that arresting Julian Assange should be a priority. We have recently received confirmation [1] that he has been charged in secret so as to have him extradited to the USA as soon as he can be arrested.
Assange’s persecution, the persecution of a publisher for publishing information [2] that was truthful and clearly in the interest of the public – and which has been republished in major newspapers around the world – is a danger to freedom of the press everywhere, especially as the USA is asserting a right to arrest and try a non-American who neither is nor was then on American soil. The sentence is already clear: if not the death penalty then life in a supermax prison and ill treatment like Chelsea Manning. The very extradition of Julian Assange to the United States would at the same time mean the final death of freedom of the press in the West.
Sign now!
The courageous nation of Ecuador has offered Assange political asylum within its London embassy for several years until now. However, under pressure by the USA, the new government has made it clear that they want to drive Assange out of the embassy and into the arms of the waiting police as soon as possible. They have already curtailed his internet and his visitors and turned the heating off, leaving him freezing in a desolate state for the past few months and leading to the rapid decline of his health, breaching UK obligations under the European Convention of Human Rights. Therefore, our demand both to the government of Ecuador and the government of the UK is: don’t extradite Assange to the US! Guarantee his human rights, make his stay at the embassy as bearable as possible and enable him to leave the embassy towards a secure country as soon as there are guarantees not to arrest and extradite him. Furthermore, we, as EU voters, encourage European nations to take proactive steps to protect a journalist in danger. The world is still watching.
Sign now!
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/16/us/politics/julian-assange-indictment-wikileaks.html[2] https://theintercept.com/2018/11/16/as-the-obama-doj-concluded-prosecution-of-julian-assange-for-publishing-documents-poses-grave-threats-to-press-freedom
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Letter to citizens of the EU from the “periphery”: the politics of closed borders are bringing us closer to fascist rules
We, the human rights defenders and citizens from the countries relegated to the “periphery” of the European Union (EU) and the Schengen space, want to express our deepest concern for the current situation in which we can see the rise of fascism and a deterioration in basic human rights, such as freedom of movement and the right to seek asylum.
The leniency towards and acceptance of the rise of the far-right in European countries is worsening living conditions for people on the move and increasingly endangering their lives. The claim that the EU’s fundamental values are respect for human dignity and human rights, freedom, democracy, equality and the rule of law has been in question for several years now. However, in 2018 this claim lost any remaining standing.
As human rights defenders and citizens, many of us coming from the recently war-torn former Yugoslav space, we are obliged to point out that current national governments at the periphery of the EU are supposed to act in accordance with guidance from Brussels. We do not want to justify the institutional inactions, violations and violence used against people on the move in our countries, so we use all available legal and political means to fight their (in)actions. However, we also want to point out that it is the EU, the way it currently functions, that is justifying and making their actions possible.
We use the opportunity of the start of the new year to appeal to the citizens of all the member states, as well as those from the countries that hope to become members one day, to return to the EU’s fundamental values and insist on and promote them in the realities of their own countries.
We call upon citizens of the EU to stand up and make their resistance stronger than the borders which the governments are building.
We call upon citizens of the EU to resist violence against people on the move, and to stand up against any officials, individuals or groups who intend to continue with the diminishing of the basic rights that all people of the world are entitled to.
Today this violence is enacted upon people who dream about a better life in the EU, tomorrow it will be experienced by the citizens of member countries, their friends or relatives, based on some other traits that can be used as a basis for discrimination.
We want to warn, given our unpleasant privilege of the real lived experience of war, but also difficult post-war years, that it is exactly this kind of behaviour which the bureaucracy of the EU is demonstrating now that enabled the dissolution of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia and consequent wars. In addition to this, it provided fertile grounds for the exploitation of the traumatized and poor, the dehumanization of victims of war and the rise of war profiteers in a similar way to what we see now. In 1990s Balkans, people were often forced to rely on criminals who were promising to provide them with basic necessities, because governments and UN agencies often failed to do so — even such basic necessities as food, shelter or safe passage from occupied territories.
Thus, we feel obliged to bring your attention to the urgent need to change the policies regarding the militarization and sealing of the borders in the EU. Now, when there is no legal way to enter the EU or to seek international protection at Europe’s borders, smugglers and profiteers are thriving again, while those who seek their basic rights are ignored, abused, or even criminalized.
With the upcoming EU parliamentary elections and the track record of national elections in member states in the last few years, we want to warn that we are again at the verge of the destruction of humanity. It is exactly these politics, of closed borders and the encouragement of violence and disregard for human rights of a certain group of people that, within the framework of the representative democracy as we now have it, enable the rise and strengthening of fascism.
For these reasons, we call upon the citizens of EU countries, to show political courage and solidarity with people on the move and demand that their governments live up to their obligations stemming from the respect for human dignity. The pressure has to come from your presence in the streets, advocacy engagements, petitioning, and acts you will make to change the EU as it is now.
The change will come with the solidarity and not charity you can show toward people who are dreaming about a better life in Europe.
For these reasons, we also call upon the governments in the EU member states to reconsider their current position of closed borders, and their paying of non member states to enforce border regimes which go against democratic principles. At the moment, by doing so, they are enabling the establishment of authoritarian regimes in the periphery of Europe and further, as well as giving more power within the EU to far-right politics by giving them legitimacy.
These policies give approval to violence against human beings at the EU’s borders. People are beaten up, tortured, sexually harassed, insulted and humiliated. And according to well-documented independent reports and numerous testimonies from the field, this is all done by the repressive regimes, border guards and police, from EU member states.
If those who are currently making decisions in EU capitals do not reconsider their policies, they are going to be remembered in history as guilty of the fall of universal human rights, values and human dignity.
We are entering 2019 with the scheduled EU parliamentary elections for May. There is a small window of opportunity to act and try to redirect the sinking ship. No one will make this change for us! No one will do it instead of you! As citizens of EU countries and those who aspire to become part of the EU, we all have to embrace our civil responsibility and ask for change where it matters — from our own governments and policy-making bodies in the European Union. When governments fail, citizens must act. Because Europe painfully remembers what fascism feels like. But it also knows the power of inclusion and solidarity.
Let’s remind our elected officials that solidarity, respect for human rights, freedom and democracy, is what is most urgent now. There are many ways to demand protection for those who suffer due to the disrespect of human rights. It can be direct action such as peaceful protest, targeted and advocacy or any other form of civic pressure. But it must be constant, massive and large enough to succeed. And that’s why every voice and every action matters.
European citizens must not remain silent, as they have so many times in the past.
Are You Syrious?
Nela Porobić Isaković, Sarajevo
Gorana Mlinarević, Sarajevo
Milena Zajović, Zagreb
Nidžara Ahmetašević, Sarajevo
Citizens:
Adis Imamović Piksi, Velika Kladuša
Adriana Zaharijević, Beograd
Aleksandar Pavlović, Beograd
Aleksandra Uzelac, Zagreb
Ana Čigon, Ljubljana
Antonija Petričušić, Zagreb
Andrea Grgić, Zagreb
Artan Sadiku, Skopje
Barbara Matejčić, Zagreb
Biljana Stanković Lori, Novi Sad
Bojana Ćulum, Rijeka
Bojana Videkanović, Sarajevo
Biljana Đorđević, Belgrade
Damir Arsenijević, Tuzla
Damir Imamović, Sarajevo
Danijela Dolenec, Zagreb
Dinko Gruhonjić, Novi Sad
Dobrica Veselinović, Beograd
Dražana Lepir, Banja Luka
Duško Vuković, Podgorica
Dženeta Agović, Tutin
Elma Tataragić, Sarajevo
Emina Buzinkić, Zagreb
Ervina Dabižinović, Herceg Novi
Faruk Šehić, Sarajevo
Gazela Pudar Draško, Belgrade
Goran Bubalo, Sarajevo
Helena Popović
Irena Cvetkovik, Skopje
Iskra Gešoska, Skopje
Iva Pleše, Zagreb
Ivan Blažević, Zagreb
Ivan Đorđević, Beograd
Ivana Pantelić, Beograd
Ivana Ristić, Leskovac
Ivica Mladenović, Belgrade
Jelena Čolaković, Podgorica
Jelena Vidojević, Belgrade
Jeton Neziraj, Prishtine
Jovan Džoli Ulićević, Podgorica
Maja Maksimović, Belgrade
Maja Raičević, Podgorica
Marijana Hamersak, Zagreb
Marijana Kučer, Split
Marina Škrabalo, Zagreb
Marjan Ivković, Beograd
Milan Vulović,
Milica Pralica, Banja Luka
Milivoj Bešlin, Novi Sad
Milovan Pissari, Beograd
Minja Bogavac, Beograd
Nataša Kršulj, Sarajevo
Nedim Sejdinović, Novi Sad
Nikola Vukobratović, Zagreb
Nuna Čengić, Sarajevo
Paola Petrić, Beograd
Paula Petričević, Kotor
Petra Matić, Zagreb
Roman Kuhar, Ljubljana
Sanela Lepirica, Ključ, Velačevo
Senad Pećanin, Sarajevo
Sanja Sarnavka, Zagreb
Snežana Baralić Bošnjak, Pančevo
Snežana Čongradin, Belgrade
Snježana Milivojević, Belgrade
Srećko Horvat, Zagreb
Suzana Kačić-Bartulović, Splita
Tea Hvala, Ljubljana
Zoe Gudović, Belgrade
Žarka Radoja, Belgrade
Groups and NGOs:
Autonomni kulturni centar Attack, Zagreb
Borders None, Zagreb
Centar za mirovne studije, Zagreb
Društvo za psihološku pomoć, Zagreb
Dugine obitelji, Zagreb
Inicijativa Dobrodošli
Inicijativa mladih Varaždin za Europsku prijestolnicu mladih 2022
Helsinški parlament građana, Banjaluka
K-zona, Zagreb
Legis, Skopje
Oštra nula, Banja Luka
Otvoreni Centar Bona Fide, Pljevlja
SOS Team Kladuša, Velika Kladuša
U dobroj vjeri, Zagreb
No Borders Community
Vox Feminae, Zagreb
Zaklada Solidarna, Zagreb
Clean cars, green jobs
After protracted negotiations, the EU has set a target of 37.5% reduction in new car emissions by 2030 — with an interim target of 15% by 2025 — towards meeting its commitment of cutting overall GHG emissions by 40%. The Paris goal of keeping global warming below 1.5 to 2ºC will entail higher cuts.
The 37.5% figure is a compromise between environmental concerns, the European Parliament’s goal of 40%, and massive lobbying by countries with large car industries (especially Germany) for a 30% reduction.
As is often the case with compromises, the law met with criticism from both sides. Representatives of Europe’s car industry call it “totally unrealistic” and warn of a “seismic impact” on jobs. The European federation of transport NGOs, Transport & Environment (T&E), called it a welcome step but not strong enough. Auto industries can use loopholes to undermine it. And the European Parliament’s proposal to penalise carmakers for failing to supply enough zero and low-emission vehicles (ZLEVs) was blocked by the Council and the Commission.
The law does send a clear signal to industry to phase out engine cars, though the target is not yet high enough to meet climate commitments. And there are no guarantees it will be attained (leave alone surpassed) without damaging the economy and the livelihoods of Europe’s 13.3 million autoworkers. It needs to be backed up by:
- I. Fiscal incentives to shift consumer demand towards ZLEVs
- II. Sufficient investment in green technology and jobs
DiEM25’s European Spring policy programme proposes concrete solutions:
* A pan-European carbon tax to tilt the balance towards ZLEVs and a carbon-free economy. See DiEM25’s news article COP24: Another Climate Cop-Out regarding advantages of a carbon tax (Fee & Dividend). Moreover, apart from being generally ineffective, Cap & Trade does not apply to transport emissions
* A European workers’ compact and jobs guarantee for every European, closely linked to a Green Investment Programme of €500 billion invested annually in Green Energy, Transport & Transition (GETT), ensuring new job opportunities across Europe and a smooth transition to a green economy
Austerity is stupid: here's why the powerful don’t like to admit it
The poet Fernando Pessoa taught us that no stupid idea can gain general acceptance unless some intelligence is mixed in with it. So how can it be that austerity appears to have been generally accepted? Objectively it is a bankrupt policy – the data is clear on this – and yet it continues to be part and parcel of our daily lives.
It happens that we now know what was already obvious for a while: that austerity is not only inadequate as a policy method to exit economic crises but that its continuation depends almost entirely on the inability of politicians to abandon the political capital thus far invested in advocating for it. It was true in Greece, in Portugal and it is true today everywhere in Europe. While the International Monetary Fund [IMF] now publicly condemns the austerity policies that the Troika of lenders – which incidentally included the IMF – forced down the throat of peripheral Eurozone economies, almost nothing has been done to turn away from them. Instead, we hear our leaders proclaim the end of the crisis as if we live in a black and white world which offers us simple binary options like: crisis/no crisis and we were able to turn it on and off as we pleased.
Isn’t today’s tragedy precisely that we are all very well aware of the cost of austerity, but nonetheless cannot bring ourselves to admit that it was plain wrong? The Greek case shows that the political capital spent on pursuing austerity policies is – at least in part – the reason why such political investment cannot be renounced so easily. It would be like admitting that all the work that you’ve done was in fact a lie. And with elections around the corner, we all know that no political figure will admit to such blunders when power is up for grabs.
We seem to be living in Guy Debord’s ‘society of the spectacle’ – except that in this case it is not that we are slaves to technological advancements alone and therefore act like we are – but also to our own political system whose functionaries operate within a framework of power struggles.
We could talk about the real issues of our time, like climate change, poverty, lack of investment and so on, but the ruling liberal establishment prefers instead to extend and pretend the lie of austerity in order to convince voters that it was indeed a correct policy to pursue – no matter what the evidence actually says. The outcome of such extend and pretend politics is what we are seeing emerge everywhere in the world today: a widespread resentment towards the ruling liberal establishment embodied by populist monsters whose racist, authoritarian and xenophobic politics are finding a voice in our communities.
So what is the answer amidst this failed politics? The answer can only be a Progressive International whose narrative deeply penetrates this warped version of reality. We must talk about this, endlessly. We must repeat it adnauseum to dismantle the layers of propaganda that we are fed day in – day out. If we don’t do this – we will fail miserably in our quest to change Europe and the world. There’s no time to lose.
Join us! www.progressive-international.org
The song and dance about the UN migration pact
Last week, 150 countries adopted the UN Migration Pact, securing the necessary two-thirds majority. In the Moroccan town of Marrakech, they voted in favour of a non-binding agreement for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and promised to cooperate more and relieve those countries that are currently receiving an influx of migrants.
The adoption of the Pact followed months of negotiation. Back in July, all 193 UN members — except the United States — finalised the pact. Trump’s US had left negotiations in April last year, and Hungary and Australia soon followed. By late October, Austria had peeled off, triggering Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Switzerland to follow their example. Israel, Croatia, Chile and the Dominican Republic also refused to sign.
In Europe, the Belgium, Dutch and German governments came under pressure from the far right, referring to the pact as subversive, calling it an open invitation to the whole of Africa and the Middle East to come over.
The diplomatic fuss is both a moral outrage and an absurd gesture. In fact, the pact brings nothing new or binding, but rather sumps up the pros and cons of migration. Most agreements on migration have been secured in other treaties, which set out the basic rights that states cannot violate.
If you look for a more hopeful and pragmatic answer to the influx of migrants in southern Europe, one should take a look at DiEM25’s European Spring Programme. While it is above all an economic crisis that we have to tackle (see our European New Deal), we must be prepared to welcome newcomers to Europe. We should start by emergency measures to address Europe’s humanitarian crisis. We want a pan-European Common Asylum System for all newcomers, with EU funding conditional on compliance, in full respect of European agreements, the charter of fundamental rights and the Refugee Convention.
Our asylum system will forbid Europe from returning asylum-seekers to a country in which they would be in likely danger of persecution. Instead, European countries will facilitate refugees and asylum-seekers to settle where they have better prospects for employment, stronger family ties, or better language skills. Meanwhile, we must consider the rights and needs of host communities just as much as those of the migrants. We will introduce a new Integration and Investment Programme that directs EU funding to municipalities that welcome newcomers into their communities.
DiEM25's recently established volunteer group (DSC) in North Strafforshire is leading the way
Having formed in the early Summer this year, our North Staffordshire DSC has been busy working on both local activity and support for the UK National Collective’s Take a Break from Brexit Campaign, due to our main city, Stoke-on-Trent, being called a ‘Brexit capital’ with a 70% EU Leave vote in 2016.
In our local activism, we decided to identify a number of local organisations and events in which we could embed ourselves and spread the word about DiEM25 by means of workshops and forums. These were to be planned and delivered in a means whereby local people can link their own concerns and issues to policies that we provide solutions to in our eight policy pillars.
In November we delivered workshops on participatory democracy at the Stoking Curiosity Festival; then in December, workshops on Transparency and Participatory Budgeting in the context of healthcare at 1000 Big Workshop Day for people setting up enterprise and social support groups related to health.
From New Year we will be collaborating with UNITE (Community Action) at both the local and the national level, as well as the YMCA, the largest international youth organisation, with projects throughout Europe and beyond.
So how did we arrive at this stage? By drawing on all local contacts and organisations we could think of; making a list; attending some of their meetings or events; and talking to the organisers about DiEM25. They were soon offering us space to share our workshops, and without exception very interested in our aims and principles. We have a Loomio Channel called ‘8 Pillar Power’ which all are welcome to join! We are ready to go in the New Year with members in Dublin, Lisbon, Amsterdam, Bonn, and Warsaw on the channel and interested in working together with us to develop these workshops and more.
We hosted a launch of the Take a Break from Brexit campaign in December, and we arranged activities for attendees to come up with campaign strategies. These include pop up cafes, stands, forums, as well as art and theatre workshops.
We’ll be taking a short rest but meeting up on January 2, 2019 to fight the current Brexit options offered by the British government (bad deal or no deal). We hope you will join us then.
Our plan to revive Europe can succeed where Macron and Piketty failed | Yanis Varoufakis
If Brexit demonstrates that leaving the EU is not the walk in the park that Eurosceptics promised, Emmanuel Macron’s current predicament proves that blind European loyalism is, similarly, untenable. The reason is that the EU’s architecture is equally difficult to deconstruct, sustain and reform.
While Britain’s political class is, rightly, in the spotlight for having made a mess of Brexit, the EU’s establishment is in a similar bind over its colossal failure to civilise the eurozone – with the rise of the xenophobic right the hideous result.
Macron was the European establishment’s last hope. As a presidential candidate, he explicitly recognised that “if we don’t move forward, we are deciding the dismantling of the eurozone”, the penultimate step before dismantling of the EU itself. Never shy of offering details, Macron defined a minimalist reform agenda for saving the European project: a common bank deposit insurance scheme (to end the chronic doom loop between insolvent banks and states); a well-funded common treasury (to fund pan-European investment and unemployment benefits); and a hybrid parliament (comprising national and European members of parliament to lend democratic legitimacy to all of the above).
Since his election, the French president has attempted a two-phase strategy: “Germanise” France’s labour market and national budget (essentially making it easier for employers to fire workers while ushering in additional austerity) so that, in the second phase, he might convince Angela Merkel to persuade the German political class to sign up to his minimalist eurozone reform agenda. It was a spectacular miscalculation – perhaps greater than Theresa May’s error in accepting the EU’s two-phase approach to Brexit negotiations.
When Berlin gets what it wants in the first phase of any negotiation, German chancellors then prove either unwilling or incapable of conceding anything of substance in the second phase. Thus, just like May ending up with nothing tangible in the second phase (the political declaration) by which to compensate her constituents for everything she gave up in the first phase (the withdrawal agreement), so Macron saw his eurozone reform agenda evaporate once he had attempted to Germanise France’s labour and national budget. The subsequent fall from grace, at the hands of the offspring of his austerity drive – the gilets jaunes movement – was inevitable.
Historians will mark Macron’s failure as a turning point in the EU, perhaps one that is more significant than Brexit: it puts an end to the French ambition for a fiscal union with Germany. We can already see the decline of this French reformist ambition in the shape of the latest manifesto for saving Europe by the economist Thomas Piketty and his supporters – published this week. Professor Piketty has been active in producing eurozone reform agendas for a number of years – an earlier manifesto was produced in 2014. It is, therefore, interesting to observe the effect of recent European developments on his proposals.
In 2014, Piketty put forward three main proposals: a common eurozone budget funded by harmonised corporate taxes to be transferred to poorer countries in the form of investment, research and social spending; the pooling of public debt, which would mean the likes of Germany and Holland helping Italy, Greece and others in a similar situation to bring down their debt; and a hybrid parliamentary chamber. In short, something similar to Macron’s now shunned European agenda.
Four years later, the latest Piketty manifesto retains a hybrid parliamentary chamber, but forfeits any Europeanist ambition – all proposals for debt pooling, risk sharing and fiscal transfers have been dropped. Instead, it suggests that national governments agree to raise €800bn (or 4% of eurozone GDP) through a harmonised corporate tax rate of 37%, an increased income tax rate for the top 1%, a new wealth tax for those with more than €1m in assets, and a C02 emissions tax of €30 per tonne. This money would then be spent within each nation-state that collected it – with next to no transfers across countries. But, if national money is to be raised and spent domestically, what is the point of another supranational parliamentary chamber?
Europe is weighed down by overgrown, quasi-insolvent banks, fiscally stressed states, irate German savers crushed by negative interest rates, and whole populations immersed in permanent depression: these are all symptoms of a decade-long financial crisis that has produced a mountain of savings sitting alongside a mountain of debts. The intention of taxing the rich and the polluters to fund innovation, migrants and the green transition is admirable. But it is insufficient to tackle Europe’s particular crisis.
What Europe needs is a Green New Deal – this is what Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 – which I co-founded – and our European Spring alliance will be taking to voters in the European parliament elections next summer.
The great advantage of our Green New Deal is that we are taking a leaf out of US President Franklin Roosevelt’s original New Deal in the 1930s: our idea is to create €500bn every year in the green transition across Europe, without a euro in new taxes.
Here’s how it would work: the European Investment Bank (EIB) issues bonds of that value with the European Central Bank standing by, ready to purchase as many of them as necessary in the secondary markets. The EIB bonds will undoubtedly sell like hot cakes in a market desperate for a safe asset. Thus, the excess liquidity that keeps interest rates negative, crushing German pension funds, is soaked up and the Green New Deal is fully funded.
Once hope in a Europe of shared, green prosperity is restored, it will be possible to have the necessary debate on new pan-European taxes on C02, the rich, big tech and so on – as well as settling the democratic constitution Europe deserves.
Perhaps our Green New Deal may even create the climate for a second UK referendum, so that the people of Britain can choose to rejoin a better, fairer, greener, democratic EU.
Originally published in The Guardian: theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/13/plan-europe-macron-piketty-green-new-deal-britain