Ideas for Europe #5

The fifth “Ideas for Europe” Newsletter by Centre Maurits Coppieter presents some of the foundation’s activities from June to November 2016. It opens with an opinion piece by Centre Maurits Coppieters President, Xabier Macias, reaffirming our internationalist solidarity.

It features articles by Fundació Josep Irla on new ways of integrating worker participation into the decision-making processes of businesses in an effort to minimize job insecurity, reduce unemployment and build sustainable societies.

This issue also includes short opinion pieces David Grosclaude, Occitan journalist and EFA Vice-President, on reforming political participation in Europe, and Ana Miranda, Former Member of the European Parliament for Galician Nationalist Bloc and Vice-President of the EFA, on Europe’s response to the refugee crisis, and Jane Aaron, former professor at the University of South Wales, on feminism and the Welsh home rule.

This issue introduces a new book “The Emergence of a Democratic Right to Self-Determination in Europe,” coordinated by Daniel Turp and Marc Sanjaume Calvet, which outlines the cases of 22 nations that claim a right to self-determination.

As is customary, it includes a section with the best tweets, this time from EH Bildu at the European Parliament; Josep-Maria Terricabras MEP; Centre Maurits Coppieters from an event with Fundació Nexe; and the European Free Alliance.

Lastly, this winter issue tackles the question of what led the British to decide to leave the European Union with a thoughtful reflection by Miguel Martinez Tomey. He claims that austerity policies and the shrinking welfare state led voters to look for the “exit door” and hope that Brexit will “free them from the convulsions suffered by the rest of the world.”