Euromemo Group

EuroMemorandum 2008/09

Democratic transformation of European finance, a full employment regime, and ecological restructuring – Alternatives to finance-driven capitalism

This Memorandum was formulated on the basis of discussions at the 14th workshop of the working group ‘European Economists for an Alternative Economic Policy’ (EuroMemorandum Group) on 26-28 September 2008 in Brussels. It is based on contributions from Elmar Altvater, Stephanie Blankenburg, Trevor Evans, Marica Frangakis, Jörg Huffschmid, Anne Karrass, Florence Palpacuer, Diana Wehlau and Frieder Otto Wolf.

The text is available in English, German, Greek, Slovenian and Spanish.

 

Summary
Introduction
1. Europe under pressure: Financial meltdown and economic recession
1.1 The financial meltdown: Background, perspectives and impact
Box 1: The role of corporate limited liability in the current financial crisis
1.2 Oncoming recession: The macroeconomic situation
1.3 Polarisation and precarisation; poverty and wealth: The social situation
1.4 Alarming developments pushed to the background: The ecological situation

2. Promotion of crises: Critique of European policies
2.1 The disaster of financial market policies
Box 2: Mortgages – An embarassing initiative 2.2 The counterproductive macro-regime
Box 3: Alarming decisions by the European Court of Justice
Box 4: Patients’ rights in cross-border healthcare: ‘Bolkestein’ through the backdoor
2.3 Dismantling of workers rights through labour market policy
2.5 Continuing weaknes of climate and energy policies

3. Proposals for alternatives to finance-driven capitalism
3.1 Democratic transformation of European finance
3.2 Excursion: Reforming Governance in Transnational Corporations (TNCs)
3.3 A new macro-regime for full employment, social inclusion and security
3.4 A new regime on energy and climate

 

Added Files:
EuroMemorandum 2008/09 (German/Deutsche Fassung)Download (215 kb)
EuroMemorandum 2008/09 (English version)Download (192 kb)
gr-euromemorandum_2008_2009.pdfDownload (660 kb)
sl-euromemorandum_2008_2009.pdfDownload (122 kb)
EuroMemorandum 2008/2009 – versión española/Spanish versionDownload (226 kb)
List_Signatories_2008_260609.pdfDownload (34 kb)