A round table for Belarus? A wonderful idea. Who wouldn’t like to see the estate of an Eastern dictator be set in order at history’s most famous piece of furniture? But the rounds for hope are nonexistent when the suggestion comes from Alexander Lukashenko, the despot in power for the last 17 years. 

The Greek crisis is essentially a déjà vu of the subprime loans catastrophe, which hit the US in 2008, leaving the global economy in disarray. The obvious difference is that, in this case, the insolvent borrower is a state. Other than that, the similarities are striking: the sudden realisation that the Greek debt was ‘toxic’ initiated a crisis of trust in the financial system, due to the uncertainty over the exposure of major lending institutions to bad loans and raised doubts regarding the solvency of other developed states in the eurozone. The quality of sovereign bonds portfolios became ‘anyone’s guess’, or, to put it more precisely, anyone’s speculation. The immediate effect of this crisis of trust was the rise of interest rates in interbank and sovereign loans, resulting in a liquidity shortage and, perhaps, a double dip recession in 2012. 

Greece, as many other countries, has since 2009 faced the second phase of a global-scale capitalist crisis, the sovereign debts crisis. The banks, after being saved during the first phase of the financial crisis with government money, then turned against their saviours by reducing lending for the increasing sovereign debts, which ironically occurred for their sake. 

Feminicide, the most extreme form of violence against women, is generally linked to discrimination, poverty and patriarchal cultures. It takes place within a context of total impunity and particularly affects many Latin American states. The main task of the Strategy Meeting that followed the fourth conference on feminicide in the European Parliament on 3 March 2011 was to define concrete activities to be undertaken in the period before the next EU and Latin American and Caribbean Summit that will take place in Santiago de Chile in June 2012.  

The global economic crisis has not been overcome; its character has merely changed. For us parliamentarians, its most tangible characteristic is the smoldering debt crisis in some Euro
countries. Similar to the crisis in the banking sector, the European government debt crisis is typical of a large-scale financial crisis, the “Second Great Depression,” and managing it has to
be addressed in this context. If it were only an uncontrolled government debt accumulation in Europe, then it would now be appropriate to simply apply debt brakes to manage the public debt,
and to work with stronger sanction options. But would this have prevented the problems in Ireland or Spain? No.

In co-operation with the BlueGreen Alliance, the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung’s Climate Network brought eight representatives of labour unions and environmental organisations on a green-jobs focused tour to Europe from September 26 to October 5, 2011.

Werner Schulz

Belarus Between Round Table and Rapid Reaction Force

In Growing Fear of a Perilous Autumn, Lukashenko Seems Willing to Use any Means

A round table for Belarus? A wonderful idea. Who wouldn’t like to see the estate of an Eastern dictator be set in order at history’s most famous piece of furniture? But the grounds for hope are nonexistent when the suggestion comes from Alexander Lukashenko, the despot in power for the last 17 years.Since first becoming a political institution, the round table has symbolised the approach of bringing conflicting interest groups together to participate as equal partners in a dialogue and to identify solutions that all participants can support. Who would claim to seriously believe that this is truly Lukashenko’s goal? 

On 17th May 2011 the SLD (Polish Social-Democratic Party) announced  that it had prepared a civil partnership act. This is important to know because to date there are almost no legal regulations concerning gay people in Poland. The only act containing the words ‘sexual orientation’ is a law from 2004 prohibiting discrimination at the workplace. This law owes its existence to several circumstances. Firstly, it is due to the fact that Poland joined the EU and had to comply with the acquis communautaire. Secondly, at that time there was a first attempt to pass a Civil Partnership Act in Poland – Senator Maria Szyszkowska wrote a statute which passed the Senate and had a possibility to pass the Sejm (the Lower Chamber of the Parliament) as well. It didn’t because Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, then Marshall of the Sejm, didn’t put it to the vote. Before that, in the year 2000, the SLD tried to get a Cohabitation Act ratified – it didn’t become a law as a result of social discord. The act proposed this year is the third attempt to vote for a Civil Partnership.

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“Civil society” is a term that has been eagerly used and abused, ever since the Polish political transformation of 1989 took place. Within the confines of a conservative-liberal fantasy, private foundations and church groups were supposed to take over many functions previously taken care of by the “welfare state” (albeit one defined in a particular, “real-socialist” manner). And thus, it was thought best to replace the actual welfare with the eagerly touted “charity” and hand over the schools to various non-governmental organisations. Even though this fantasy was ultimately never realised, it was still successfully promoted as a model of sorts: an ideal everyone should aspire to.

After a long six months the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union ended in glory on the last day of June 2011. Croat accession negotiations to the EU have now officially closed; the next phase is the drafting of the accession treaty, followed by a referendum in Croatia and ratification in the EU’s 27 national parliaments. Then, hopefully on 1 January 2013, Croatia will become the EU’s 28th Member State. This is probably going to be by far the greatest legacy of the Hungarian Council presidency.

Nearly 40 years after the famous study by the Club of Rome entitled Limits to Growth, our unease about economic growth is returning. The nuclear disaster in Japan has also raised the question of whether the danger at which industrial society puts itself requires radical change. On the road to ecological modernity, is prosperity possible without having to destroy the basis of our livelihood? Ralf Fücks

The German Embassy and The Representative of German Industry and Trade hosted a conference on electro-mobility in Washington, D.C. on March 30. Our president Ralf Fücks held the keynote speech, hilighting the development of the electric car industry on both sides of the Atlantic. Ralf Fücks

The experience of the post-Soviet countries shows that civil society (CS) plays an important role in democratisation and institutional (governance) reforms, which are central to the EU agenda in its relat ions with the Eastern Partnership countries. Howe ver, the effectiveness of EU sup port has been limited so far by factors such as the incoherence of EU policy which can be seen in the insufficient coordination of assistance activities carried out by EU institutions and the Member States as well as bureaucratic obstacles, making it difficult for social partners from the recipient countries to use the support.

After months of negotiations, the European Parliament and the EU Council finally gave the go-ahead in October for the creation of the European External Action Service. As a result, the new service can start work on 1 December 2010, drawing on around 3 700 staff and 135 embassies worldwide. The EEAS is one of the most important institutional reforms provided for by the Treaty of Lisbon. Existing but fragmented EU structures will be reformed, enhanced and brought together under the EEAS's umbrella. By Franziska Brantner

When Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, expectations were raised for a new political era.  At home, many Americans hoped for an end to political polarization and the so-called culture wars.  Abroad, millions more looked forward to America’s recommitment to engagement and consultation with the rest of the world.  As the 2010 congressional elections approach and the midpoint of Obama’s four-year term looms, it is a good time to reassess such expectations.  Are they on the way to being realized?  And if not, why not? By Peter Skerry

There are crises and crises. Some come and go without leaving any lasting trace but others signal a break with the past. You do not need to be much of a prophet to predict that the current global economic shock will go down in the history books as the end of an era.

With the Lisbon Treaty coming into force, the European Parliament's role is key. But is the EP well prepared for the new task? Barbara Lochbihler, MEP for the Greens/EFA group, takes a closer look at the stronger and weaker spots of the EP's policy.