PARTY OF THE EUROPEAN LEFT, EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING, ATHENS, 14-15 JULY 2012
DECLARATION
CRUCIAL TIMES FOR EUROPE – CRUCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES FOR THE LEFT

The crisis in Europe is advancing. Nevertheless, now there is also a new hope for all European peoples thanks to the positive developments for the Left in different European countries, especially after the recent unprecedented reinforcement of SYRIZA/USF in Greece and the important increase of the Front de Gauche in France. This new situation reinforces the influence of a European left alternative against the dangerous Fiscal Pact and all austerity and authoritarian policies.
EU Summit: Different dosage of the same poisonous recipe
Heads of state of our countries declare they are back from the EU summit with victories for their people, and inflections from Chancellor Merkel, Mario Draghi or Jean-Claude Juncker. They say they have "saved Europe" for the 19th time since the crisis began. Francois Hollande even say that Europe is "reoriented" in the right direction. This is misleading advertising.
This optimism of the neoliberal majority of the EU is mainly based on the decision for the direct recapitalization of the private banks by European mechanisms, without apparently a further charge of the public debts of the member-states. In reality, those measures do not challenge the domination of the markets and are not capable of stopping the unprecedented financial crisis. Private banks are funded and rescued without any public, democratic control, while citizens are being drowned.
Those measures cannot resolve the European structural crisis and are accompanied with drastic austerity obligations. Even if the EL rejects those so-called «solutions», we are concerned by the exemption of Greece - the member-state that is facing the most extreme fiscal and social problems - from the fiscal arrangements decided by the European Council. This is another proof that the  country is not treated as an equal participant in the Eurozone and that there is a dangerous ongoing project for its gradual isolation. Unfortunately, this situation cannot be reversed by the newly elected, tri-partisan Greek coalition government, which is a loyal servant of the Memorandum and super-austerity policies.
The EU “Merkozy” Fiscal Pact is still intact, despite the declarations by Francois Hollande. The EU leadership made it clear that the countries “rescued” by the European Stability Mechanism, will again have the duty to serve the strategy of internal devaluation, through further austerity programs, social cuts and attacks on salaries, pensions and labor rights. At the same time, the so-called “Growth and Employment Pact” is the same as the neoliberal “European Growth Plan” adopted last March.
Peoples of Europe will be again called to pay the price of the massive socialization of losses and also lose their sovereignty and democratic rights, as national budgets will be supervised by the European Commission and the unelected “Council for the Euro”.
The real cause for all this situation derives from the contradictions of financial capitalism, and the class and neoliberal character of the European Treaties (starting from Maastricht).The rules of the last EU Treaty do not escape from the neoliberal patern and emphasize on “competitiveness” as the main principle. We reject these treaties, because we are in favor of democratic European institutions and the right of the peoples, the European Parliament and the national parliaments, to have the last voice in any critical situation.
Proposals of the EL to exit from the crisis
The European Left repeats its conviction that only the submission of the banking sector under democratic, public control and the radical transformation of the neoliberal architecture of the Eurozone and the EU, allow an exit form the crisis.
All existing tools and new ones – the EU budget, financial institutions, the banking system - must be democratically controlled and oriented to a new kind of growth. This is the aim of our proposal for the creation of a democratically controlled European public bank for social development, ecology and solidarity, which will fund public investments in reasearch and development, public services, infrastructures and ecological transition. This bank will be funded by a “financial transaction tax”, the European budget and by the ECB that can create money.
It is also time to boost employment and facilitate public investments, increase wages, organize a redistribution of income between capital and labor, and implement a consequent taxation of high incomes and wealth rather than constantly promoting the profitability of the financial sector.
In any case, there must be immediate sustainable European solutions to the existing public debt crisis, starting from the radical change of the role of the ECB and its transformation into a real central bank, by becoming a last resort lender through the purchase of state bonds, so as to block the speculative gambling on the state bonds of more vulnerable member-states.
We propose a European moratorium for the temporary freezing of loan repayments, not to aggravate the problems of the over-indebted member-states, and the organization of a European Convention on the debt crisis, which will decide the abolition of an important part of institutional and transnational debts, so as to bring the public debt back to sustainable levels. 
There is also an immediate need for a political regulation of the European financial sector, with five basic policy tools:

1. The introduction of a “financial transaction tax” on capital flows in a European level. To be efficient, this tax must include all kinds of financial transactions that can be used for speculation.
2. The circulation of Eurobonds by the European Central Bank for public investments and social development, without accompanying terms for restrictive fiscal policies in a national level.
3. A clear legislative distinction between commercial and investment banks in Europe.
4. The creation of a European public rating agency.
5. The termination of tax heavens that exist inside and outside Europe and the fight against fiscal dumping.

There is hope, thanks to the left! Evolutions in the political landscape and the responsibilities of the Left
The decisions of the EU Summit clearly indicate that the neoliberals' campaign for an even more extreme reduction of popular sovereignty and democratic decision-making is escalating. Ms Merkel and the EU leadership are using the crisis to put into effect their own concept of “political unification”, which will ensure a decisive control on national budgets and concentrate fiscal, economic and political power in the hands of the german government and the dominant EU circles. The EU leadership is ready to sacrifice once and for all the project of a true European political and social union, in order to serve the interests of its leading forces and the markets.
At the same time, several countries are faced with authoritarian, anti-democratic experimentations. An assertion confirmed by the insitutional legitimization and the enlargement of the presence of uncontrolled technocrats in key-ministerial positions.
Despite the serious situation, there is hope thanks to the left.
The Greek elections in 6 May and 17 June have been two moments of historical importance for all European societies. The fact that SYRIZA/USF did not manage to form a left government in Greece, cannot downgrade the unprecedented result of the radical Left, which reached 27% and became the major opposition party in a country which has been the frontline both of neoliberal authoritarianism and popular resistance in the last two years. This result has upgraded the presence and the resonance of left ideas and alternative proposals not only in Greece, but in a European and global scale.
More and more European citizens today realize that “There Is An Alternative” expressed by the European Left forces. The results of SYRIZA/USF in Greece, Izquierda Unida in Spain, Front de Gauche in France and the Red-Green Alliance in Denmark, and the optimistic perspectives for other forces, like the Socialist Party in the Netherlands or the Sinn Fein in Ireland, express a significant increase of the influence of left and progressive ideas. This increase has not come out of the blue. It is a result of a persistent fight against austerity programs and neoliberal authoritarianism. It is a result of a dialectic link between the presence of the left in the emerging social struggles and movements, and the transformation of the aspirations of the vast majority of our societies into concrete political alternatives that combine urgent proposals with more strategic aims and bring back hope to our people.
We are now stronger and more able to reinforce the fight of the European left, especially against the increasing influence of chauvinistic projects and racist extreme right parties, as well as the promotion of solidarity in our societies, at local, national and European level.
In the next period, the EL is determined to maximize its efforts and initiatives for an even wider convergence of social and political actors in our countries and in Europe for the deterrence of the austerity policies, the promotion of socially sustainable proposals and the restoration of the dignity of the victims of the crisis.

• In this direction, we urge all our MPs, MEPs, trade-unionists, youth and feminist activists to intensify their contacts and common initiatives, in order to prevent the ratification and elaboration of the EU Fiscal Pact and the austerity programs and Memorandums. We must stop the destruction of our societies and fight for the protection of democracy.
• The EL welcomes the initiation of the Altersummit process and we will participate actively to all future steps of this process.
• The EL, with its partners from social movements and unions, has just started up a European citizens' initiative. From September onwards we will collect 1 million signatures from all EU countries, for the creation of a European public bank for social and ecological development and solidarity. It is a big challenge and an important tool in the fight to exit the crisis through a new kind of growth and citizens' participation in major political orientations of the EU.

Now is the time for the European Left to present an alternative social, political and cultural project in Europe.
Athens, 14-15 July 2012