English Club

Why we are convening an international summit on a plan B for Europe, open to willing citizens, organisations and intellectuals, by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Member of the European Parliament, co-founder of the Parti de Gauche (France), Stefano Fassina, Member of the Italian Parliament, former Italian deputy minister of economy and finance (Italy), Zoe Konstantopoulou, President of the Hellenic parliament (Greece), Oskar Lafontaine, former German minister of finance, founder of Die Linke (Germany) and Yanis Varoufakis, Member of the Greek Parliament, former Greek minister of finance (Greece).

We the undersigned call on the governments of Europe, the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF to respect the decision of the Greek people to choose a new course and to engage the new government of Greece in good faith negotiations to resolve the Greek debt.

There is a growing consensus that it will prove impossible to restore growth on a sustained basis in the EU without stimulating investment, and the European Council of Heads of Government firmly asserted that the Union needs bold steps to step up investments and create jobs, write economists Giovanni Cozzi and Stephany Griffith-Jones who suggest here "two promising paths" to use limited public resources to achieve important gains in terms of investment.

There is no such thing as a surgical strike, a clean war or a five minute evacuation of a city neighborhood; there is no such thing as "collateral damage" or justifiable civilian victims; there is no such thing as justice through bombing of civilians - whoever is supposedly hiding amongst them.

The Soccer World Cup is already at the center of sports politics, but especially in Latin America (with a record team of teams passing to the next round) it is also at the center of politics as such, write Pablo Piccato and Federico Finchelstein in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and New York.

Brazil's ex-head of state Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva says the European Union is an “amazing achievement” and an “inspiration” for other regions. But, he argues here, now it needs a broader and “more generous” vision.

One year ago, Edward Snowden's revelations made us learn and understand how our relationship to technology has changed forever, and how the trust we place in machines shall never be the same. Edward Snowden also shows us a path for taking back control of the machines, an urgent task that no one today can ignore. By Jéremie Zimmermann, co-founder of La Quadrature du Net.

The recent election of Syriza in Greece offers a vibrant glimmer of hope for the future of social and economic democracy in Europe. At the same time, however, the rise of the right-wing nationalism, stoking strong racist and anti-Semitic sentiments, threatens the ideals of a plural and democratic Europe.

The Queen of England will meet with Pope Francis on Thursday at the Vatican. It is the first time that a Pope, who as an Argentine Bishop had expressed his belief that the Falklands, or Malvinas, should be returned to Argentina, will meet with the formal ruler of those British citizens living on the South Atlantic islands. Many Argentines and many Latin Americans await this meeting with expectation, write Federico Finchelstein and Fabian Bosoer.