How and why do nations and people fall into the debt trap and how can they escape? What is the big picture regarding the role of the EU, the Troika, national governments and international institutions?…
Victory against Madrid’s hospital privatisation – and other recent struggles in Spain – shows popular resistance delivers results. “Resisting is pointless”, we hear endlessly repeated. “So many years of protest but the crisis continues, why bother?” insist others, inoculating us with apathy and resignation. “Protests could lead to something that’s even worse”, whispers the machinery…
The times when the Troika of the European Commission, European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) could operate in the dark and on extralegal grounds seem almost over. The European Parliament just released its draft enquiry report on the role and operations of the Troika with regard to the euro area progamme countries.…
One cannot say that the austerity measures in 2013 came as a surprise – all of them were mentioned in the first Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Troika and the Portuguese government, signed in May 2011 by all governing parties (PS, PSD and CDS) |1|. The MoU imposes profound economic and political changes: transformation of…
In this newsletter you can read about: Overall situation European level Greece Ireland Portugal Cyprus Spain Italy Slovenia From our side Overall situation While the general outlook remains broadly unchanged, with the Troika still pushing for severe austerity and national governments continuing their acts of window-dressing, another important issue has become increasingly prominent: corruption. As…
Today TroikaWatch, a new citizen observatory on the politics of the Troika, officially launches its project. After a one month long beta-phase, TroikaWatch from now on brings news on the Troika, the situation in the countries affected by it and the civil opposition and resistance against it. A monthly newsletter will be published in nine…
In this newsletter you can read about: Overall situation Greece Ireland Portugal Cyprus Spain Italy Slovenia Who we are and why we write this newsletter Overall situation The last months of the year are traditionally the time when national parliaments vote on the budgets for next year. Like in the years before, in many countries…
Steffen Stierle (Attac Germany), April 2013 At the end of March 2013 the European Commission put forward two Communications following on from political negotiations in the European Council and making practical proposals for implementation. The first Communication relates to the future ex ante coordination of economic reforms, while the second concerns the “Convergence and Competitiveness…
Attac Germany The political elites of Europe are planning another attack on social justice and democracy: with the Competitiveness Pact, as Angela Merkel called it during the World economic Forum at Davos, a new instrument is on the agenda in order to enforce drastic measures for social cutbacks and liberalization. By means of bilateral agreements…
Andy Storey (Attac Ireland) / Working Group “Economic Governance” A spectre is haunting Europe: the spectre of competitiveness. Our leaders regularly tell us (and will again urge us at the December EU Summit) that we must work harder and longer, and for less pay, in order to be more ‘competitive’. We must reduce or give…