EU Law Restrictions on Member States’ Competences Have Grown during the Crisis

The reaction to the crisis has inadvertently granted the European Commission with increasing competences for the control of the provision of (non-economic) public services by the Member States.

Summary

• The crisis has altered the balance of power between MS and the EU, particularly as a result of the use of EU Institutions for purposes that went beyond the ‘ordinary’ functioning and the scope of the Treaties (ESM, etc.)
• This (undemocratic response) was the only feasible one, particularly under tight timeframes and urgency in the decision-making
• As a result of the “new balance” of powers, the EU (and the Commission in particular) have gained creeping competences in areas traditionally reserved to MS
• This can be clearly seen in the field of public services / SGEIs (case study)

“An Ever Closer Union” – The Impact of the Eurozone Debt Crisis on National [Party] Politics

In the wake of the Euro crisis democratically elected governments were being removed and replaced by bureaucrats or ruling parties lost elections, but because of the strait jackets imposed by the Troika, there was no change in policies.

If democracy is the space within which the people express their will, then this has been a bad time for the democratic process. It’s also been a bad time for traditional party political definitions. Lines have been blurred and parties which know what they are against with little to say on what they are for are on the rise.

Public Policy as Education

The GPPF (Greek Public Policy Forum) is a unique think-tank in the sense that it tries to form bonds between applied politics and theoretical politics (politics versus policy). Policymaking, based on serious studies and in-depth analysis of the evolutionary course of social formations, can definitely boost social reforms to the benefit of both social groups and individuals.

A Greek tragedy in three acts: A dilemma, an oxymoron and a leap of faith

There are times when academic witticisms really hit the nail on the head. When the organisers of the latest instalment of the Greek Public Policy Forum decided on headlining the Nottingham meeting “No Country for Old Systems”, they surely could not have predicted the tragic irony that their intended pun now encapsulates. On 3^rd April a 77 year old retired pharmacist puts a gun to his head and commits suicide in the middle of Syntagma square. In a dramatically lucid suicide note he explained that the only act of resistance left to him before ending up looking for food in the trash, was a dignified end of his own choosing. While the jury is still out on what will happen to countries with “old systems” that fail to meet the standards of the global free market, Greece appears to be rapidly becoming “no country for old men”. If soaring youth unemployment, gender inequality indices and the growing waves of emigration are added to the equation, it is doubtful whether younger men and women will fare any better for the foreseeable future.