Archive of #Greece
-
What to do in Europe? Proposals from the Left
The second Ιnternational Conference of EReNSEP (The European Research Network on Social and Economic Policy), "France and Europe after Brexit", was held in Paris December 2-3, 2016. Videos from the event — including presentations by Costas Lapavitsas, Heiner Flassbeck, Stathis Kouvelakis, and Cédric Durand — are available on YouTube.
The collective statement below was drafted following the conference, and signed by 25 academics, writers, and politicians.
via Wikimedia Commons.
These are critical moments for Europe. It is clear that the Economic and Monetary Union has irrevocably failed, the economies of the periphery of Europe remain in severe crisis, and the economies of the core lack any impetus. The single currency has become a tool for Germany to implement mercantilism through wage dumping and — with the support of other core economies of the EMU — to dictate “structural reforms," which create economic stagnation, poverty, and unemployment. The big corporations and promoters of neoliberalism are taking advantage of the crisis to intensify their offensive against the social and democratic conquests of the twentieth century. -
How Would a Eurozone Break-Up Affect Balance Sheets?
First published on the blog of the Centre de recherche en Économie at Sciences Po. Translated by David Broder.
via Flickr.
Upon its introduction at the turn of the millennium, the euro was widely perceived as a major achievement for Europe. Its apparent economic success, combined with the convergence of multiple economic indicators across the various countries, fed this feeling of success. A few years later, the picture looks radically different. The global financial crisis has revealed the imbalances that led to the sovereign debt crisis and which have driven the Eurozone to the brink of breaking apart. The austerity policies that became a continent-wide norm in 2011 have fuelled a long stagnation [See the reports of the independent Annual Growth Survey (iAGS)], with growth rates paling in comparison to those of the United States and the United Kingdom.This economic under-performance has fed popular resentment against the euro, with a growing number of Europeans today considering it the problem rather than the solution. The financial community itself seems to be preparing for the possibility of leaving or dissolving the single currency, by reducing its cross-border exposure. Greece came close to breaking away in 2015. Finally, the intellectual atmosphere has also changed: leading thinkers like the American economist Joseph Stiglitz and the German sociologist Wolfgang Streeck are but the most visible representatives of a more generalised change in attitudes.
-
Three Objectives for the Left in Europe
25 researchers and political organisers from France, Greece, Spain, Germany, Italy and Belgium have put their names to this collective text, following the international conference France and Europe after Brexit. The conference was staged in Paris on 2 and 3 December 2016 by the Europe-wide EReNSEP network. Translated by David Broder.
Europe has entered a critical period. It is evident that the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) has irrevocably failed. The economies on the periphery are suffering severe crisis, and the economies of the centre are stagnating. The single currency has become an instrument of German capitalism as it seeks to impose a mercantilist economic policy through wage dumping as well as to dictate "structural reforms" (and it is supported, in this, by the other economies at the centre of the EMU). -
Only Everyday Life Can Survive the Onslaught
There was a time when the world felt like an ocean of normality, bar your occasional pocket of carnage and destruction: I am talking way, way back in early 2016. Up until that time the Greek territory was hailed or vilified (depending on how you would see it) as one of these unruly exceptions, an impressive outlier that would grip so many to the point of coming to experience it first-hand. Upon descending in Athens, these far-flung visitors would invariably comment on how eerily peaceful it all was: cars were still driving up and down streets strikingly devoid of any enormous craters spitting out lava or fire. Despite the crisis, people were still walking around peacefully, not running nor screaming in agony. The fact that the signature Athenian cafés and bars were still in their place would become the object of scorn, something of a proof that the crisis was not much more than a bloated exaggeration on the side of us unruly Southerners who had it too good to let things change now. -
Greece and the Crisis of Democracy in Europe: An interview with Gerassimos Moschonas
This interview with Gerassimos Moschonas— on European democracy, Euroscepticism, and the Greek Left — was conducted by Ioulia Livaditi and Nikolas Nenedakis and first published in Rethinking Greece.
Moschonas is currently an associate professor in comparative politics in the Department of Political Science and History, Panteion University of Political and Social Sciences in Athens. He is the author of In the Name of Social Democracy: The Great Transformation: 1945 to the Present and has written widely on European intergration, social democracy, and the Greek crisis.
One of the central findings of a nation-wide survey, recently conducted by diaNEOsis foundation under your supervision, is the consolidation of a new kind of Euroscepticism in Greece. How does this trend relate to similar trends in the rest of Europe?
Up until the crisis of 2009, Greece was a markedly pro-EU country. Since the onset of the 2009 crisis, however, a significant shift has been documented in the findings of the Eurobarometer and explored in greater depth in the Dianeosis survey and Dianeosis focus groups. Greece, a country that was at the forefront of pro-Europeanism, is now bringing up the rear. Whilst there is still majority support for remaining in the EU and the Eurozone, almost all other indicators (approval of European policies, trust in EU institutions, perception of benefit from Greece’s participation in the EU, etc.) have either declined dramatically or totally collapsed. On the traditional axis of pro-Europeanism and Euroscepticism, Greece is now among the most Eurosceptic EU countries. Disapproval of European institutions and policies is even greater than in Great Britain, a country that is often considered the paradigm of Euroscepticism and recently voted in favour of Brexit.