Brussels rally in solidarity with the Irish ''No'' campaign

For the second year running, citizens from around Europe swarmed the German city of Frankfurt, headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB). Their aim: to 'Blockupy' the ECB on its 15^th anniversary. A great success in itself, it's also part of a growing movement across Europe against the austerity measures being undemocratically introduced by the ECB, European Commission and the IMF, collectively known as the Troika.

Statement from the conference organised by Corporate Europe Observatory and Transnational Institute on the 5-6th of May. The Austerity Treaty – or the so called Fiscal Compact - if implemented, would pose a direct threat to the welfare state across Europe and be a major obstacle to redistributive, progressive and socially just economic policies in the future. It also represents the latest attempt to turn economic policy into a technocratic endeavour outside of democratic control, with unelected bureaucrats in a powerful, decision making role.

This morning, about 40 activists and concerned citizens handed out flyers to participants to a closed-doors meeting of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health (SCFCAH), gathering representatives of the European Commission and Member States in the Borschette conference centre, rue Froissard 36 in Brussels.

As the recent worries about Spain becoming ‘the next Greece’ show, the so-called eurocrisis is far from over. While the European Central Bank had bought time by pumping more than one trillion euros into Europe’s banks, none of the underlying structural problems have been solved. In fact no serious attempt has been made to address the deeper causes of the crisis. Political scientist Bastiaan van Apeldoorn argues that the eurocrisis expresses the failure of a neoliberal European project driven by a transnational corporate elite.

Activists, campaigners, trade unionists and individuals joined together to call for a halt to the EU's Austerity Treaty at the two-day EU in Crisis conference, organised by Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) and the Transnational Institute to mark CEO's 15th anniversary.

Activist and writer, Susan George emphasised the anti-democratic nature of the austerity agenda, which has been imposed without debate or electoral support.