The Green European Foundation is a European-level political foundation whose mission is to contribute to a lively European sphere of debate and to foster greater involvement by citizens in European politics.
GEF strives to mainstream discussions on European policies and politics both within and beyond the Green political family. The foundation acts as a laboratory for new ideas, offers cross-border political education and a platform for cooperation and exchange at the European level.
Green European Foundation asbl
3 Rue du Fossé – 1536 Luxembourg
The latest edition of the Green European Journal focuses on the state of the European Union. The articles look at issues as diverse as European integration, the refugee crisis, TTIP, the future of European solidarity, ways out of Europe's multiple crises (be they financial, political or social), as well as how the citizens of Europe could take their future in their hands. It features Etienne Balibar, Chantal Mouffe and Philippe Lamberts, among many others.
Today it is very clear that Europe is facing the greatest crises of its post-war history: crises, in plural, because they have not only hit the European economy, but have also seriously damaged the political and social dimensions of the European project.
The EU still hasn’t managed to deal with its economic problems, and at the same time there is an increased hostility between member states of the South and the North manifesting itself in scapegoating and a blame game about who’s at fault for all the problems of the EU. Not to mention that there is a war raging in the immediate neighbourhood of the EU, claiming thousands of innocent victims, with no end in sight.
Our politicians seem to passively condone all this, while European citizens struggle to understand what is happening around them. Worse still, they don’t know how to expect to address today’s problems.
In the European post-democracies everything is driven by technocrats, it’s they who decide which problems are worth dealing with, and what the best treatment would be for our ills. Political projects play a marginal role now, not to mention voters’ voices.
In this context it’s no surprise that right-wing populists are stronger than ever before.
Now we need to ask ourselves a number of questions.
- Can we offer an alternative to the neoliberal status quo and the looming xenophobic threat?
- Can we address Europe’s obsession with growth, its lack of solidarity and the crises inside and outside the EU, while still keeping intact the European project?
- Is there a sustainable and humane solution to today’s problems?
These are the questions the Green European Journal seeks to address in the 15 articles
that make up this edition, each of which shines a spotlight on an area of Europe’s challenges, its soulsearching and the the path that lies ahead.
While the diagnosis of Europe’s problems might seem gloomy, we have not given up on finding a solution.
And Greens should be there in the front line when it comes to building a sustainable Europe of solidarity; a Europe that emerges from these crises stronger.
