Wednesday, February 26, 2014

A call for Europe - by Ulrich Beck, Habermas & others

The German sociologist Ulrich Beck and several other European intellectuals have published a joint statement on the coming elections for the European Parliament in May:

"Wählt Europa"

"Vote for Europe"

The statement is signed by Ulrich Beck, Jürgen Habermas, Jacques Delors, Bruno Latour, Zygmunt Bauman, Anthony Giddens, Harold James, Robert Menasse, Agnes Heller, Alain Touraine, and many others.

Jürgen Habermas says: 

"“Die deutsche Bundesregierung darf die politische Verantwortung nicht länger verleugnen, die sie durch das von ihr bestimmte Krisenmanagement für die geradezu obszön ungleichen Krisenschicksale in der Eurozone übernommen hat. Weil sie selbst ein ‚deutsches Europa‘ am meisten fürchten muss, sollte sie diese Art von Führungsrolle in einer Politischen Union, die ihren Namen verdient, überflüssig machen."

“The German federal government must no longer deny the political responsibility that it has assumed for the almost obscenely unequal crisis outcomes in the Eurozone, through the crisis management that it has imposed.  Since it has itself most to lose from a “German Europe”, it should make this type of leadership role superfluous, through a political union worthy of the name.”

No comments: