Guardian Live | Europe, austerity and the threat to global stability with Yanis Varoufakis, Caroline Lucas & Tariq Ali
Thursday 7 April 2016, 7pm–8.30pm, Emmanuel Centre, London, SW1P 3DW
Has the EU lost sight of its original purpose? Critics argue that agreements such as TTIP illustrate just how undemocratic the EU has become. Are weaker nations paying the debt of a financial crash which they did not cause? Has the EU been reduced to a vehicle for free market economics? Calls for more transparency in EU decision-making is nothing new. Yet, as we see the rise of continental euroscepticism and the EU becomes more fractured, is it time to reform?
Is the finance sector fit for purpose? Public Lecture, in London (30/3), with John McDonnell MP & Anastasia Nesvetailova
Speakers: Yanis Varoufakis Former Finance Minister of Greece and Anastasia Nesvetailova Political Economy Research Centre, City Universit
Why Britain should STAY in the EU – LSE blogs
In an interview with EUROPP’s editor Stuart Brown, former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis discusses the launch of his new ‘Democracy in Europe’ movement (DiEM25), the UK’s upcoming referendum on EU membership, and why a surge of democracy is needed to prevent the EU from sliding toward disintegration. Continue reading
DiEM Statement Condemning European Summit’s Preliminary Accord to Expel Refugees to Turkey
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.
Europe and the Spectre of Democracy – interviewed by Michel Feher (Part 3 – DiEM25)
In early January 2016, Michel Feher interviewed me in Paris in advance of our announcement of DiEM25.
Click here for Part 1, here for Part 2 or here for the Zone Books – Near Futures website, to watch the complete video and/or read the transcript. Continue reading
Europe and the Spectre of Democracy – interviewed by Michel Feher (Part 2 – When short-termism lasts)
In early January 2016, Michel Feher interviewed me in Paris in advance of our announcement of DiEM25.
Click here for the Zone Books – Near Futures website, to watch the video and/or read the transcript. Continue reading
Europe and the Spectre of Democracy – interviewed by Michel Feher (Part 1)
In early January 2016, Michel Feher interviewed me in Paris in advance of our announcement of DiEM25.
Click here for Part 1 or here for the Zone Books – Near Futures website, to watch the complete video and/or read the transcript. Continue reading
In conversation with Mark Blyth: Greece, Austerity, Brexit and Europe’s other darlings
GLOBAL FINANCIAL MARKETS FORUM, 2-3 March 2016
Brexit will hasten collapse of European Union
Adam Bouyamourn reporting from the GLOBAL FINANCIAL MARKETS FORUM, March 3, 2016
Brexit risks hastening the collapse of the European Union and plunging the continent into the chaos of the 1930s, said Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek finance minister.
On CNBC: The Refugee Crisis, Europe & Mr Osborne’s own goals
Following are excerpts from a CNBC interview with Geoff Cutmore and Hadley Gamble, and Yanis Varoufakis, former Greek Finance Minister.
MY ‘ADVICE’ TO JEREMY CORBYN… AND GEORGE OSBORNE
Much was made recently of the U.K.opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn’s statementthat I was helping his team “in some capacity.” George Osborne, for one, jumped at the opportunity to take a shot at Labour by mocking me, luxuriating visibly in my defeat in the hands of a despotic EU. Even David Cameron, not to be left out,added his own little quip.
Is Greece not another compelling reason to vote for Brexit on 23rd June?
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
The Irish have rejected ‘dead-end’, troika-inspired policies – comment in The IRISH TIMES
Old Regime is Dead. But the New Regime is Struggling to Be Born
Ireland has rejected the policies of Fine Gael Minister for Finance.
Reply to Open Letter by Federation of Young European Greens to DiEM25
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
DiEM25 and the mission to save Europe – in conversation with euronews’ Isabelle Kumar
To watch the interview on the euronews site, click here :
Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis locked horns with the European establishment, and ultimately had to stand down. But now the bad boy of European politics is back with a vengeance – launching DiEM25 a new pan-European movement that he says aims to bring democracy back to EU decision making. To discuss the future, as well as the thorny past, Varoufakis joined euronews’ Isabelle Kumar in Athens for the Global Conversation.
For the video of the interview click image. For a transcript…
Democracy or Bust in Europe -Project Syndicate Op-Ed
BERLIN – “Europe will be democratized or it will disintegrate!” That maxim is more than a catchphrase from the manifesto of the Democracy in Europe Movement – DiEM25, the group I just helped to launch in Berlin. It is a simple, if under-acknowledged fact.
Read more at my Project Syndicate page
The 3rd Option Needed in the UK Referendum Debate – in Newsweek
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.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Economics: With Ann Pettifor – Tuesday 23/2, London
How did we get here? And how can we get out of this mess? Hitch a ride with us through the topsy-turvy world of contemporary economics – no prior knowledge required!
Yanis Varoufakis (Former Greek Finance Minister), Ann Pettifor (Director, Policy Research in Macroeconomics), Mufti Abdur Rahman Mangera (Former Imam, Casenove Road Mosque, Hackney and Director of Zamzam Academy)
- LOCATION: Hackney’s Round Chapel www.roundchapel.org
- WHEN: Tuesday, 23 February 2016 from 16:00 to 18:30 (GMT)