Talking to Real FM radio station earlier today, about recent terrorist attacks in Brussels, SYRIZA MEP and Vice President of the European Parliament, Dimitrios Papadimoulis, made the following statements:

«All evidence indicates that this is an organized terrorist attack. According to what I hear from the experts, I would say that it must be a response by some other terrorist-core, to the arrest of Salah Abdeslam, four days ago. 
Additional security measures have already been taken not only in Brussels, but all over the European countries. The worries and the fear are increased, under the influence of this new shock and I think that this requires from all of us a greater unity and cooperation as well, than to turn over national egoism and entrenchments.
If the Intelligence Services of many countries had collaborated in a basis of a common information exchange system, preventing the risk of terrorist attacks, the Belgians who had organized the attacks in Paris would had been already arrested by the French authorities. 
These persons were already identified by the Belgian police who had information about them, they had been on their radar, but there was no way that the French secret services could be informed. So, I would say that I do believe we need not to panic. Instead, we need more European collaboration on the security measures. And at the same time, we need to not make the mistake of considering every refugee as a potential terrorist or suspect for terrorism.
Moreover, the powers that be, Americans, Russians and European leaders, must find a way to bring peace in Syria. Otherwise Europe is going to live, once more, dark days.
I state all this as what I think that it should be done and not as what I think that will happen in the end. I am deeply concerned because the fascism of ISIS and of the Jihadists, who do not care about murdering innocent civilians at the metro stations, airports or shops, feeds the fear and the rise of the far-right, whose agenda is not only to close the borders and dismantle Schengen, but also destroy every chance for a united, democratic Europe».

This article is part of New Europe’s: Our World in 2016

Belgium – Brussels : The Transatlantic Agreement on Trade and Services between the EU and the US, is one of the biggest challenges for our continent and civil society. Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership or TTIP as we use to call it, aims to create a free trade zone between the US and the EU, in which products and services will move freely without economic and/or regulatory restrictions.

According to the neoliberal economic devotees, the full liberalization of trade between EU and US -liberalisation from the “shackles” of different labour, environmental, social and other regulatory standards- will allow the maximum exploitation of the commercial opportunities offered by the two largest economic powers of the planet.

However, criticism on TTIP, apart from political, has also an economic basis.

First of all, the economic models themselves, as used by the initiators of TTIP estimate that the benefit of the full liberalization of trade between the US and the EU, will provide -according to the most ambitious scenario- 10 billion euros a year for all 28 EU member States.

This estimated benefit is quite small, compared to the size of the two participating economies and the extent of the particular agreement.

Secondly, the agenda of the negotiations between EU and US is multi-levelled and affects dozens of economic aspects, but also the everyday life of European citizens. What raises concerns to hundreds of millions of citizens is the fact that this negotiation is not being made among two institutional partners, but also includes large-scale multinational corporations that attempt to open their own business into new markets, through the deregulation of the legal framework that protects public services and public goods.

The degradation of key regulatory barriers and rules on environmental protection, including labour rights, rules on food safety and the abolition of laws on personal data protection, are just some of what has leaked from the formal negotiations. Negotiations that take place, once more, behind closed doors, under a regime of absolute secrecy, without any public information or access to information to the European political parties, without substantial involvement of the European Parliament and last but not least, in locations and at times that remain unknown.

At the same time, while the “opening up” of public services to the international market and to other countries’ private companies seems to be the main point of these negotiations between the EU and the US, what hides behind the curtain is the major institutional changes in Europe and in US.

More specifically, the “Investor State Dispute Settlement”, known as ISDS, provides legal possibilities to private investors, equivalent to those of a member-state. The threat for democracy is huge.

The legal protection and the power that TTIP offers to major business interests, is expected to create a new “road map” in Investor-State disputes settlements. Major international corporations will acquire the legal right to raise barriers against the democratic decisions of sovereign states or supranational associations, when they consider that such decisions jeopardize their profits.

Seven years after the outburst of the financial crisis, it is obvious that the international corporations and the neoliberal political elite in Europe and the US, drive their interests in the same ”familiar” direction, pursuing a beyond limit liberalization of the global economy, against common interest and environment.

However, the strategy of the neoliberal forces could not be limited only to the   financial institutions or the trade agreements; Neoliberalism’s greatest enemy, is the Democracy itself.

What is called into question here is something extremely important while the outcome of this battle will determine the balance of power between democracy and the protected interests of the few. We, the forces of the European Left, are active part of this battle, along with the progressive voices and other political forces, in the EU and the US.

We stand by the social movements and NGOs around the world, and anyone who wants to put on the table the agenda of Democracy and civil rights, of social cohesion and equality, of environmental protection and sustainable development.

UK election result has revealed the real challenge for Europe’s future.

In the last months, the media have been worrying about an eventual Grexit. This catastrophic scenario for the whole Eurozone has been considered so far as No 1 threat.

The recently recorded convergence between Greece and its partners and their expected agreement within the next weeks, I hope, reveals that the Grexit was a false alarm. To the contrary, David Cameron’s promise to hold a referendum on EU membership, converted Brexit from a distant prospect into a real and non-negligible possibility.

Conservatives, willing to stop the rise of UKIP nationalists, adopted part of their agenda and entrapped one of the most powerful European countries into a false dilemma. The EU appears as a problem British people has to deal with. Moreover, we should not forget that, in France, Marine Le Pen, with her ultra-nationalist agenda, has promised a referendum if she wins the 2017 presidential election.

In the next two years, Europe will face a harsh reality, which reflects the adoption of wrong policies, based on extreme austerity, and a lack of a vision for the future of EU as a political union.

The developments in the UK and France prove that the problem of the EU crisis is not of technical nature. It is deeply political. The EU has ceased to appear as a factor of economic growth and upward social mobility. It has become synonymous of punitive policies of the wealthy North towards the poorer South, which leaded to recession and unsustainable debts. This favored the rise of anti-European and nationalist ideas, which have been so destructive for our Continent in the recent past.

If the EU fails to convince its peoples that it is determined to return to growth, job creation and social solidarity, it will face the danger of collapse, with incalculable consequences. A new European project for growth needs, first of all, clear political decisions to end unilateral austerity and give again hope to the European unification process.

http://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2015-05/david-cameron-united-kingdom-european-union-calls/seite-3

Dear Mr. Papadimoulis, the German left has celebrated Syriza’s historical victory in the last elections and then was rather surprised that Anel, a force of the right, was invited to join the government.

Dimitrios Papadimoulis: It was an obligatory move because we did not manage to have a majority in the Parliament. We could have had new elections or create a totally weak minority government which would have been open to strong blackmail from inside and outside the country. I should also point out that we did not want to form a coalition government with a pro-bailout/pr0-austerity party. Instead we were ready to find a larger consensus in favor of the society. Our scope is to save our society – the poor and the middle classes – from a total disaster. It is a matter of humanism and democracy.

What are the most important targets of the government?

Our objective is to stop the unilateral and tough austerity policy. We want to turn our economy to sustainable development, find a viable solution to the public depth and create a bridge between the bail-out program that failed and a new program with balanced public finances.

What is Syriza’s concrete plan to settle the dispute with the European institutions?

We are ready to propose ideas and to hear alternative ideas in order to find a commonly accepted solution that does not put any additional weight on the shoulders of German or European tax payers. There are already several proposals on the table for example concerning the maturity of the loans or the stabilization of the rates. The problem of the debth is not only a Greek problem.

Whose problem is it?

It is a European problem. The public debth in the Euro-area exploded since 2009. For it is impossible to have a common currency but 19 different public debths, 19 different tax systems, 19 different rates and so on. We want our effort to be a part of a larger coalition that aims at stopping this unilateral policy which creates deflation and aims at turning the European economy from tough austerity to sustainable development.

Why has the Greek government however asked for an extension of the bail-out program that you condemn so convincingly?

We hope that there will be a fair compromise, a commonly accepted solution. Right now we need some space to breath. We need a short period of time in order to create bridges between the program that has failed because it has created very strong damages in the Greek economy and the society as well to a new program that is oriented towards development. It is necessary to combine two commitments: one is to follow the rules; the other one is to accept the result of elections. If you don’t do this, there is no room for democracy.

How should the government react if the European institutions insist on social cuts as a precondition to a new program?

I do not want to intervene into the moves of the government because it does not help the ongoing negotiations. But generally speaking, I have to say that after the tough cuts – in the last five years salary and pensions were cut down by more than 30 percent as an average – there is no room for additional cuts. From the opposite site there is a huge need to stop the tax fraud, tax evasion, and public expenses which are serving a clientele state. In Greece the rich do not pay almost any taxes, the middle classes and the poor pay a lot.

Some of the German tabloid papers clearly suggest that Greece should leave the Euro it they do not want to follow the rules.

That behavior belongs to the period of the colonialism. One must always remember: The deficits and the debths were created by the political friends of Chancellor Angela Merkel. We want to be a respectful and respected member if the European Union and its common currency. We refuse to be a debth colony.

How will the new government make sure that also the extremely rich oligarchs will pay higher taxes in the future?

This is one of our priorities. We have already asked for the help and the solidarity of the European institutions and from every individual government. The German minister of finances said that he offered a technical support to the previous Greek government but the government did not accept this kind of help. We now are ready to crack down the oligarch phenomenon in Greece which is comparable to Putin’s Russia but not to a normal European country.

How can The Left in Germany support the new Greek government?

Spread the truth to the people. Our opponents have created a caricature for the Greek people that we are lazy, corrupt and spend the money coming from European tax payers. The bailout programs were aiming to save the banks all over Europe. The money did not reach the Greek people, and the Greek people did not choose the bailout programs – they were never asked about whether they want them or not. And to tell them the truth about Syriza: We are not anti-European monsters or extremist. We are a left, democratic, pro-European force that fights for the economic development, for cohesion, for solidarity. We truly fight for these European values which are present in the papers but totally absent in the existing unilateral and neo-liberal policy.

• «We don’t want to blackmail anyone, but we don’t want to be blackmailed from anyone either».

The Vice President of the E.P. and MEP of SYRIZA Dimitrios Papadimoulis, gave from Strasbourg an interview to the U.S. international network CNBC. Referring to the negotiations of the Greek government with the institutions of the European Union, D. Papadimoulis said the following:

Dimitrios Papadimoulis:

«Our proposal is not putting any additional weight to any taxpayer, German taxpayer or to any other European taxpayer. We want from the Eurogroup to put in force its decision, which already exists from November 2012, which says that when the Greek economy has net surpluses in its budget, the Eurogroup will decide additional measures for decreasing the Greek public debt, without putting additional burden to the European tax payers. Our effort is to find a win-win solution in the coming days and I’m very optimistic that we will succeed. We don’t want to burden anyone; we want our economy to turn towards growth».

«There is no plan B for the Greek government. Our plan is only the plan A: For Greece to become a respectful, equal member of the Euro Area and of the European Union. Having development of its economy, reducing the unemployment, putting in force a lot of reforms related with the administration, the tax system, cracking down the oligarchy phenomenon in the Greek economy, which is a very annoying phenomenon, because it creates gaps in the open competition of the real economy; and also for us, the crucial point is that we had a program in Greece which totally failed. Our goal is to find a solution commonly accepted from Greece and also from our partners. As Vice-President of the European Parliament, I can assure you that the large majority in the E.P. faces the problem like that».

Journalist:

– To finish give me a very brief answer, what would the Eurozone lose by seeing Greece leave?

Dim. Papadimoulis:

«The Grexit does not exist as a real chance, because the common interest of the whole Euro area is for Greece to remain in the Euro. Yesterday ILO published a study which says that in Germany there will be a huge increase of unemployment, if there is a case for a Grexit and also all the experts say that in this case, which really does not exist; there will be a domino effect for all the Euro area and for the whole European Union. It’s important to note that in the U.K. which doesn’t participate in the Euro area there are fears for such a scenario... So I repeat: we don’t want to blackmail anyone, but we don’t want to be blackmailed from anyone either».