The Euromemo Group firmly believes that a comprehensive and radical programme for socio-ecological transformation is required to achieve the necessary transition to a sustainable future. This year’s report focuses on a number of dimensions that have too often remained sidelined in Green Deal discussions, but which merit particular attention.
The Coronavirus pandemic has resulted in more than 400,000 deaths in Europe in 2020, has led to a major economic crisis and has tragically exposed the serious flaws of the predominant economic model of neoliberal capitalism, both in the European Union and beyond. As a consequence of the Corona pandemic, the nation state has returned as the economic agent of last resort. This has produced ambivalent results. At least initially, EU member states and the Commission imposed temporary export restrictions for medical products. Thereafter, more coordinated responses emerged. Member States across the EU introduced large fiscal programmes to mitigate the economic and social impact of the deep economic contraction due to Covid-19. The Commission suspended the extremely restrictive fiscal and state aid rules, and the European Central Bank introduced sizeable liquidity injections to stabilize the banking system. What is more, the markedly asymmetrical economic impact of Covid-19 across EU member states led to the decision to finally introduce mutualised forms of European debt with the Next Generation EU Programme. While this is a significant development, it remains doubtful whether the size of this initiative and the speed of its implementation will be enough to make a significant contribution to the recovery of the European economy.
Meanwhile, other important policy initiatives, and in particular the European Green Deal (EGD) as the lighthouse project of the new Commission, have come under pressure. It is all too obvious that powerful interests are using the current economic crisis as a pretext for pushing back against more ambitious policies to combat climate change. It must be clear that, given the EU’s climate targets, the economic policy decisions taken in the course of the next few years will largely determine the trajectory of the European economy until the end of this decade. They will thus be decisive as to whether we move towards replacing our current socially and environmentally unsustainable modes of production and consumption, or become exposed to an ever more intensifying social and environmental crisis dynamics.
More than 200 economists and social scientists from all over Europe and beyond have declared their support for the new EuroMemorandum (click here for the list of signatories).
Find the EuroMemo for download on the left/below (mobile version) in ‘Documents’ (English, PDF).
The EuroMemorandum 2021 is also available in:
French: Un agenda global-local post-Covid 19 pour une transformation socioécologique en Europe
Portuguese: Uma Agenda Global-Local pós-Covid 19 para uma Transformação Socio-Ecológica na Europa
Italian: Un’agenda per la trasformazione socio-ecologica dell’Europa dopo la pandemia
Summaries of the EuroMemorandum are also available in:
Greek: A post-Covid 19 global-local agenda for a socio-ecological transformation in Europe
Polish: Globalny i lokalny program transformacji spoleczno-ekologicznej w Europie po pandemii Covid 19
Table of Content
Introduction
1. The European Economy in the Age of the Corona Pandemic
2. Critical Perspectives on the European Green Deal
3. Feminist Approaches to a Care and Green New Deal
4. Reconstructing the European Economy: Industrial policy, Green
5. transition and the Health system
6. The International Dimension of Socio-Ecological Transformation