The irony for the EU, which even its leaders now recognise must change course radically, is that it can’t. At least it can’t in its present structure without such dislocating changes as to be scarcely credible. The central problem has been, and remains, the single currency. As long as countries, particularly on the southern periphery, […]
Posts Tagged ‘Euro’
Europe’s debt – a con-trick binding the people to banks
Jan 10th, 2014 by Tom Gill.This article was translated by Tom Gill based on the original in Italian at Il Fatto Quotidiano by Loretta Napoleoni. From this year Italians have a 45 billion-euro–a-year bill to pay under the EU Fiscal Compact, a budgetary straightjacket binding Rome to 20 years of economically and socially lethal spending cuts and tax rises. It’s time to […]
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Time to break up the Euro
May 6th, 2013 by Oskar Lafontaine.The European policy of Chancellor Angela Merkel is coming increasingly under pressure. Not only European Commission President Manuel Barroso, but also Enrico Letta, recently asked by Italian President Giorgio Napolitano to form the new governnnent, have criticized her austerity policies, which have been dominant in Europe and are leading to disaster. Europe’s leaders have long been at […]
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French radicals to start referendum campaign on ‘Permanent Austerity Treaty’
Jul 6th, 2012 by Tom Gill.The radical Front de Gauche (Left Front) is to launch a campaign for a referendum in France against the Fiscal Compact, known by critics as the Permanent Austerity Treaty. Agreed on 2 March 2012 by 25 EU countries, minus Britain and the Czech Republic, the EU Fiscal Compact – a German invention officially known as Treaty […]
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Hollande to present austerity treaty gift wrapped to French Parliament
Jun 30th, 2012 by Tom Gill.(In the Radical Press – Humanité) It’s done. François Hollande announced Friday afternoon that he would submit the fiscal pact (Treaty on the stability, coordination and governance in the Economic and Monetary Union – TSCG) to be ratified by the French Parliament. During his Presidential campaign he had promised to renegotiate it and would not […]
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Another road for Europe: an appeal
Jun 30th, 2012 by Newsdesk.The following appeal has been launched by a variety of politicians, activists and academics across Europe. Europe is in crisis because it has been hijacked by neoliberalism and finance. In the last twenty years – with a persistent democratic deficit – the meaning of the European Union has increasingly been reduced to a narrow view […]
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Cancel the Greek debt
Jun 19th, 2012 by Michael Burke.The Greek general election on June 17 presents a clear political choice on whether to continue with the ‘austerity’ measures imposed by the Troika of the ECB, EU and IMF which have caused a disastrous economic slump. Greek GDP fell by over 13 per cent between 2007 and 2011 and contracted sharply again in the […]
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The stark choice facing the Greek people
Jun 14th, 2012 by Ben Folley.It is difficult to imagine the impact of austerity in Greecefrom here in the UK. Aside from the stark imagery of pensioners eating from bins, students forced into prostitution and children being abandoned in increasing numbers, the statistics make for uncomfortable reading. In February The Guardian reported that planned 15% wage cuts – on top of 30% already […]
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Spain shows how lethally fragile the euro really is
Jun 12th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.If the rallying call of Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish Prime Minister, is right – that “the credibility of the euro won” – then let’s hope we never have to experience a loss. It’s more a case of the first rule of politics – when you capitulate, declare victory. The Spanish deal cooked up over the […]
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An open letter to the leaders of Europe: abandon the Euro’s ‘gold fetters’
May 30th, 2012 by Ann Pettifor.On May 15th, in what can only be described as an act of coercion, an impoverished and effectively insolvent Greece acceded to the handover of a bond payment – €436 million – to private financial ‘vulture funds’. The Greeks had little choice. However, in acquiescing to this handover – facilitated by its paymasters,‘the Troika’ – […]
