DIEM25, the Democracy in Europe Movement, strongly condemns the preliminary agreement reached during last night’s European Union Summit, according to which thousands of Syrian refugees will be returned to Turkey.

DiEM25 finds this agreement shameful and contrary to international laws and treaties, including the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (Art. 19, “Collective expulsions are prohibited”) and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

The mere tabling of such an agreement undermines further the integrity and soul of a Union that was once more confident in its espousal of humanism, its proclamation of solidarity, and its pursuit of shared prosperity.

If this agreement with Ankara is finalised, Europe will be sending a frightful message to the rest of the world: that men, women and children who managed to survive high seas and the horrors of war, regardless of their status or asylum eligibility, are not welcome in Europe.

We call upon Europeans and their elected representatives to overrule any and all attempts that would allow the EU to trade human lives and basic humanist principles for retrograde, narrow, nationalist interests.

Proponents of Brexit implore British voters to reclaim their democracy by voting to ‘leave’ the EU. On the day he announced his support for Brexit, Boris Johnson, London’s Mayor, based his announcement on the (correct, in my view) judgment that the EU lacks “proper democratic controls”. Continue reading →

Following the Berlin Launch of DiEM25, eleven representatives of the FEDERATION OF YOUNG EUROPEAN GREENS (including two Members of European Parliament) sent DiEM25 an Open Letter welcoming its ‘birth’ and urging us to unite in the fight for a Democratic, Sustainable, Humanist, Open Europe. Here is my reply to their Open Letter (which you can download here or here in pdf): Continue reading →

Read more at my Project Syndicate page  

We need a third way
Yanis Varoufakis, former Greek finance minister, speaking at the launch of the DiEM25– Good Europe campaign.

“David Cameron came back with the mother of all euro-fudges to address…an electorate that is sick and tired of euro-fudges. So there is a delicious irony there… The Euroskeptics have a legitimate case. Those who…come to the conclusion that Britain is better off outside the European Union due to their commitment to the sovereignty of Parliament and so on, they have a very interesting case. [But] I disagree with them…because at the same time they want to be part of the single market. You cannot have a single market unless you have common industry standards. And you cannot have those common standards and a judiciary and a system of implementing those common standards unless you have pooled sovereignty.

“So in the referendum I would like to campaign for a third option, neither Brexit nor surrender to this euro-fudge of Cameron and his mates in the European Council.

Continue reading →