EU in crisis - another Europe is possible

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.

Spanish activist and economist Miren Etxezarreta told the conference that although the situation in Spain was very bleak, she was optimistic, because she saw people taking the power into their own hands, and working together to create new ways of doing things at a local level.

There were calls to support the No campaign in the Irish Referendum on the Austerity Treaty - scheduled to take place on 31 May 2012.

A new campaign to challenge the push for the privatisation of water services was launched, including support for the campaign for a European Citizens' Initiative stating that Water and sanitation are human rights! Water is a public good, not a commodity. Find out more here.

And there were also calls to support the occupation of the European Central Bank on the 16-19 May and the global day of action on 12 May.

Read the statement supported by the conference here.

Walden Bello was hoping to speak at the conference on his perspective from the South, but was refused entry to Belgium. Read our statement on Walden Bello's denial to entry to Belgium.

We will be posting follow-up articles and blogs in the coming days. You can still follow any  news on this conference on Twitter (#EUinCrisis)  and Facebook or look back to the video that was streamed live.

For more background on the issues being discussed, please see the essays we commissioned ahead of the conference.

Read the wrap-up of day one