A GREEN NEW DEAL FOR EUROPE
What is the Green New Deal?
The Green New Deal for Europe (GNDE) is a comprehensive policy package for the European Union and its member states that aims at finally setting our policies on a socially just and economically sustainable Paris-compliant path. It has nothing to do with the EU Commission´s "Green Deal". Rather, the concept draws on the ideas of the "New Deal Program" with which the United States under President Franklin D. Roosevelt tackled the consequences of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. The concept of a Green New Deal is built on two paradigm shifts:
- First, public money is not a scarce resource. Material resources are scarce. The states of the European Union can finance everything they are technically capable of producing due to their sovereign currency. The real limits of our economic activity are planetary, not financial. This opens up new perspectives and possibilities for shaping the transformation processes.
- Second, there is no trade-off between effective climate protection, economic prosperity, and social justice. In fact, these three things only exist together, each one being a necessary precondition for the others.
These two paradigm shifts allow us to move away from self-restrictions and limits of thinking in current politics and to reform climate, economic and social policy in a completely new way that is appropriate for the challenges of our time. In 2019, initiated by the pan-European movement DiEM25, various scientists and activists wrote an extensive policy paper called "A Blueprint for Europe's Just Transition". In just under 100 pages, they developed a comprehensive political strategy that outlines a policy change for Europe - based on the two aforementioned paradigm shifts. It contains very specific measures for all possible policy areas that link directly to the existing political framework of the EU, which has the advantage that they can actually be implemented within the time we have left.
What are we up to do?
We are a small but rapidly growing initiative (currently around 50 people) that stands up for the implementation of a Green New Deal in the European Union. Our initiative is based on two basic assumptions.
- First, for a political vision to be actually implemented, it must be rigorously thought through, scientifically proofed, thoroughly tested, and spelled out in very precise terms.
- Second, political change is only successful if it accomplishes a shift in the societal hegemony, achieving a broad societal consensus for this vision and in mobilizing many people to work for its implementation.
We want to revise and improve the ideas and proposals of the GNDE, building on the great work by DiEM25 and its partners. We want to transform the original "Blueprint for Europe's Just Transition" into a detailed and scientifically substantiated policy program that is able to convince citizens, policymakers and activists across the whole spectrum of our society. Once our improved and revised version of a Green New Deal for Europe is completed, we want to draw public attention to this concept and campaign for its implementation. For this purpose we will connect with existing movements and groups and try to build a broad and diverse societal coalition for the a Green New Deal for Europe.
How can you help us?
We need many committed and smart people to help us build up our initiative, revise and fine-tune the Green New Deal for Europe and raise our voices for its implementation. Knowledge from almost all disciplines is needed. Whether you have knowledge in the field of natural science, economics, law, sociology, politics, agriculture, renewable energy generation, sustainable construction methods or public transport - everything is valuable for our project. Since the GNDE follows an interdisciplinary approach and is intended to be comprehensive, we need expertise from all directions.
Contact us to further elaborate, how you could become part of our initiative. Everybody is welcome!
