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European AffairsEurope continues to develop its common institutions, policies and governance, even if its political tectonic plates sometimes move slowly. The policies and laws of the European Union have a tremendous impact on the daily lives of Europeans, and on their national and local governments. Jeremy Smith brings 14 years of in-depth knowledge and experience of the European Union and the Council of Europe, as advocate and communicator on European affairs on behalf of local and regional government. This includes sustainable development, public services and services of general interest and the internal market, cohesion and regional policy, European citizenship, social affairs, and EU international development policy. In addition, Ann Pettifor analyzes European economic policy. Jeremy and Ann are both experienced public speakers in these fields, including to the European Parliament and Europe-wide conferences. 
By Jeremy Smith, 5th June 2010 It’s nice when the light of understanding flashes in your brain – and yesterday I had to thank Professor Adam Tooze, an expert on Germany at Yale, for turning on my halogen bulb… Though fully aware of the (how do I put it?) counter-Keynesianism of the German government and political establishment, I couldn’t help being puzzled by their approach to the Greek crisis, which seemed almost calculated to damage the European Union.
By Ann Pettifor: April 25th Huffington Post The humiliating surrender of Greece’s economic autonomy came just last Friday, 23 April, 2010. The democratically elected Prime Minister, George Papandreou transferred to unelected officials in Brussels and Washington the power to determine Greece’s fiscal policy. In other words, decisions about taxation, and how tax revenues should be spent. In a 26 April interview with the Financial Times on the island of Rhodes, the Prime Minister, George Papandreou admitted his country had accepted “a partial surrender of sovereignty”. Our struggle” he went on to say, “will be to recover our autonomy and liberate Greece from the surveillance imposed by the forces of conservatism”.
Back in 1765 Bostonians such as James Otis and Samuel Adams regarded “taxation without representation as a form of tyranny”. Today, a nation that served as the cradle of western democracy will effectively be governed by remote, invisible and unaccountable officials. With Saturday’s Iceland referendum due in just a couple of days (6th March), Ann and Jeremy have an op-ed article in today’s Morgunbladid, Iceland’s main daily newspaper. English version> Icelandic version> Press release> Full text of the article follows: So the negotiations have broken down, British and Dutch “bullying” (FT 27 February, 2010) continues and the referendum goes ahead. What next? We emphasize that this is not a sovereign debt crisis, even if the British and Dutch want us to think it is. It is a crisis of EU regulatory failure, and of the Anglo-American economic model. The people of Iceland have a deep democratic tradition, and through the referendum have the opportunity to assert their sovereignty and autonomy. Their leadership and example will encourage people in other democracies to reject harsh cuts in public services and living standards made at the behest of the very people and institutions responsible for the crisis. For through the wholesale nationalisation of private losses, we are all – not only in Iceland – asked to pay the price of private, reckless risk-taking.
Nearly 1000 towns, cities and regions have committed themselves to gender equality across the range of their powers, since the Charter was first launched at our congress in Innsbruck in 2006, and signed by Hilde Zach, the feisty and tireless Mayor of that beautiful Austrian city. Drafting the Charter was not easy – it is quite a dense document (even I must confess!), which at one and the same time asserts legal rights, and also offers practical ideas and guidance. The aim is that every town and city that signs up should have and implement a real gender action plan. The Charter covers all of the different roles of the local authority – political and democratic representation, major employer, service deliverer, contractor… there’s a section on all of these. Last Thursday I was back in Brussels, invited by the European Parliament’s special committee on the financial, economic and social crisis. My mission – to highlight the really serious financial problems now facing Europe’s local and regional governments, just as growing un-(and under) employment make their public services ever more essential. I gave them the key points of the November 2009 survey of national local government associations which CEMR had conducted. The results were overwhelmingly pessimistic… three quarters said things had got worse for their members (the individual towns etc.) during 2009, and about half thought they would get worse in 2010 – under 10%, mainly in Scandinavia, thought they would improve this year. Over two-thirds thought that councils’ budgets would reduce in real terms in 2010, and a similar proportion said their income had reduced substantially in 2009. |
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