WSF2021: A POST-COVID 19
GLOBAL-LOCAL AGENDA FOR A SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL TRANSFORMATION IN EUROPE -
EUROMEMORANDUM 2021
Panel discussion with Marcella
Corsi, Judith Dellheim, Laura Horn - Wednesday 27 January, 10.00 - 12.00
(GMT+1)
In this online panel at the virtual World Social Forum 2021, Marcella Corsi,
Judith Dellheim and Laura Horn will discuss the EuroMemorandum 2021. We invite
participants to join us for the discussion and bring in their own critiques,
and alternatives for a socio-ecological transformation in Europe.
The Coronavirus pandemic has led to more than 400,000 death in Europe in 2020,
has opened up 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, we have
witnessed the return of the state 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 were forthcoming. 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 as well as 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
a significant development, it remains doubtful whether the size of this
initiative and the speed of its implementation will suffice to make a
significant contribution to the recovery of the European economy.
Other important policy initiatives, and in particular the European Green Deal
(EGD) as the lighthouse project of the new Commission, have meanwhile 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 for whether we will 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.
Details and zoom link can be found at the WSF website:
https://join.wsf2021.net/activities/6898
