Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis attends a news conference on the launch of his 'Democracy in Europe Movement 2025' in Berlin, Germany. 9 Feb 2016. Markus Schreiber / AP/Press Association Images. All rights reserved.Yanis Varoufakis’ new Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25) has recently released its long-awaited manifesto (he also discusses the movement and manifesto here and here). The movement’s aim is, quite simply, ‘to democratise the EU in the knowledge that it will otherwise disintegrate at a terrible cost to all’. This is presented as the only viable alternative to the two remaining ‘dreadful options’: (i) retreat into the cocoon of the nation-state and (ii) surrender to the Brussels democracy-free zone.
DiEM25’s immediate priorities are: full transparency in decision-making (live-streaming of European councils, ECOFIN and Eurogroup meetings; full disclosure of trade negotiations; ECB minutes, etc.) and the urgent redeployment of existing EU institutions in the pursuit of policies that genuinely address the crises of debt, banking, inadequate investment, rising poverty and migration.
In the medium term, the movement’s goal is ‘to convene a constitutional assembly where Europeans will deliberate on how to bring forward, by 2025, a fully fledged European democracy, featuring a sovereign parliament that respects national self-determination and shares power with national parliaments, regional assemblies and municipal councils’. DiEM25’s long-term goal is, in other words, ‘to bring about a fully democratic, functional Europe by 2025’.
