A 12 step guide to the EU’s crisis of political responsibility

Why are European institutions incapable of implementing values that honour fraternity, solidarity, and a dignified life?

Progressive social movements have long expressed support for ‘another Europe’. Their almost unanimous support for the July 2015 Greek referendum’s ‘no’ vote against the Troika proposal for further austerity policies speaks volumes about the frustration of building a Europe from below. Indeed, anti-austerity protests have stated that the evolution of the European institutions is in the opposite direction: more and more a Europe of the (financial) market, in which democratically unaccountable institutions make decisions and then impose them, via blackmail and fear, on domestic governments and European citizens. Their diagnosis resonates with recent research on the European Union, which stresses how, from an initial democratic deficit, European institutions have moved towards a crisis of political responsibility. There is, in short, a fundamental inability to implement values of fraternity, solidarity and a dignified life.

ESO: Background information: Greek bailout referendum, 2015 http://www.europeansources.info/record/greek-bailout-referendum-2015/

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