{"id":157201,"date":"2020-04-06T12:00:53","date_gmt":"2020-04-06T11:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=157201"},"modified":"2020-03-30T08:19:48","modified_gmt":"2020-03-30T07:19:48","slug":"diem25-presents-3-point-plan-for-dealing-with-covid-19-depression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/04\/diem25-presents-3-point-plan-for-dealing-with-covid-19-depression\/","title":{"rendered":"DiEM25 Presents 3-Point Plan for Dealing with COVID-19 Depression"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/DiEM25-Assembly-Prague.png\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-157202\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/DiEM25-Assembly-Prague-1024x614.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/DiEM25-Assembly-Prague-1024x614.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/DiEM25-Assembly-Prague-300x180.png 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/DiEM25-Assembly-Prague-768x461.png 768w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/DiEM25-Assembly-Prague.png 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><em>26 Mar 2020<\/em><\/p>\n<h3><strong>DiEM25\u2019s 3-Point Plan for the COVID-19 Pandemic<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Step 1: <\/strong>Issue \u20ac1 trillion in ECB-Eurobonds<\/li>\n<li><strong>Step 2: <\/strong>Inject a \u20ac2000 European Solidarity Cash Payment<\/li>\n<li><strong>Step 3: <\/strong>Introduce a European Green Recovery &amp; Investment Program<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Introduction: Lives<\/strong><strong>, <\/strong><strong>Livelihoods and the Union on the brink <\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The COVID-19 pandemic is the greatest test of the European project in the history of the Union \u2014\u00a0and <strong><em>we are failing<\/em><\/strong><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Solidarity was meant to be a foundational principle of the EU. <strong><em>But<\/em><\/strong> <strong><em>solidarity is missing at the moment it is most needed<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>COVID-19 has revealed a fundamental truth: Europe is only as healthy as its sickest resident, only as prosperous as its most bankrupted.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>But the EU\u2019s leadership is paralysed by its beggar-thy-neighbour \u2013 and now sicken-thy-neighbour \u2013 mindset. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The price of this failure will not merely be <strong>lives lost and livelihoods destroyed.<\/strong> It will be the <strong><em>disintegration of the Union itself.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In line with its Green New Deal for Europe, DiEM25 offers a 3-point plan to protect all European residents, avert an economic depression, and prevent the collapse the Union.<\/p>\n<p>httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jm97g0RqYGM&amp;feature=emb_logo<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Four Facts<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Our plan is premised on four basic facts.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Public debt will, and must, rise: <\/strong>The precipitous fall in private sector incomes must be replaced by government expenditure. If not, bankruptcies will destroy much of Europe\u2019s productive capacity and, thus, deplete the tax base even further.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The wholesale rise in public debt must not divide us: <\/strong>The last euro crisis wrecked some member-states\u2019 fiscal position while improving the fiscal position of others. The results are wildly different fiscal absorption capacities across the eurozone. If the rise in public debt is not a shared burden, the new euro crisis will destroy the last chance to hold the European Union together once the virus itself has been defeated.<\/li>\n<li><strong>A Eurobond is essential, but the devil is in its details:<\/strong> Nine eurozone governments have rightly demanded the issue of a Eurobond so that the burden of rising public debt is shared. But the most important questions remain: Which institution should issue it? And who will back it? DiEM25 believes there is only one answer: an ECB-Eurobond backed solely by the ECB.<\/li>\n<li><strong>A Eurobond is essential, but it is not enough: <\/strong>Two more interventions are needed. During the pandemic, <strong><em>Europe must inject directly cash into every citizen\u2019s bank account immediately<\/em><\/strong> so as to prevent as many bankruptcies and lost livelihoods as possible. Once the pandemic recedes, <strong><em>Europe must embark upon a sizeable, effective and common green investment program<\/em><\/strong> so as to improve Europe\u2019s overall capacity to bounce back.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2><strong>Three Steps to Unify Europe &amp; Avert a COVID-19 Depression<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3><strong>Step 1: The ECB must issue \u20ac1 trillion ECB-Eurobonds<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Those calling for a Eurobond are right: it is the only way the rise in public debt can be shouldered without breaking the Union. The question is: <em>Who should issue it? And, who should back it.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Europe has three institutions that could issue the much-needed Eurobond: The European Stability Mechanism (ESM). The European Investment Bank (EIB). And the European Central Bank (ECB). However, two of these institutions are ill-suited to the urgent task at hand.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>European Stability Mechanism: <\/em><\/strong>The ESM should not be the issuing institution for two reasons. First, its charter insists that all lending must come with conditionalities that no government will accept. Second, even if these conditionalities are waived, the ESM\u2019s \u2018synthetic\u2019 bonds contain the seeds of Europe\u2019s fragmentation.<\/li>\n<li><strong><em>European Investment Bank<\/em><\/strong><strong>: <\/strong>The EIB should be used to issue investment bonds, not Eurobonds for shouldering public debt. (See Step 3 below)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We are left with the <em>ECB: The only EU institution able to issue non-synthetic, therapeutic Eurobonds.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In view of the above, DiEM25 proposes that:<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The ECB issues a long-maturity, 30-year, Eurobond for \u20ac1 trillion euros solely backed by the ECB, <\/em><\/strong><em>with the possibility of further issuance in needs be. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The \u20ac1 trillion collected by the ECB will then be used to replace national debt, in proportion to the coronavirus-induced national recessions &amp; public health costs.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Given the three-decade maturity of these ECB-Eurobonds, the EU will have three decades to decide how to reimburse its central bank. DiEM25 believes that only a democratically elected federal government in Europe can make these decisions. Without it, the ECB\u2019s emergency measures only deepen Europe\u2019s democratic deficit, threatening the survival of the Union all over again.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Step 2: The ECB must inject a \u20ac2000 European Solidarity Cash Payment to every European resident<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Countless Europeans are currently locked up without a capacity to earn. They need cash <strong><em>immediately<\/em><\/strong>, not loans or benefits that involve excessive bureaucracy.<\/p>\n<p>For this reason, <strong><em>we call upon the ECB to fund immediately Europe\u2019s commercial banks with \u20ac2000 per European citizen to be credited directly into their account<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>As for the unbanked, <strong><em>the ECB must provide cash to one bank per member-state that issues numbered, anonymous debit cards<\/em><\/strong> <strong><em>to be disbursed by local and national authorities to all residents without bank accounts<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>Let no one tell you it can\u2019t be done!<\/em><\/strong><em> In response to COVID-19, Hong Kong authorities credited US$1250 to the account of every resident. In response to the 2008 financial crisis, the Australian government did the same, sparing the country the same recession that spread viciously through Europe.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong><em>Let no one tell you we cannot pay for it!<\/em><\/strong><em> The total cost of the \u20ac2000 European Solidarity Cash Payment to every European citizen will cost the ECB \u20ac750bn \u2013 precisely the sum that the ECB just announced will go to more quantitative easing: the same quantitative easing that failed, prior to the pandemic, to help Europe exit its stagnation.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong><em>Let no one tell you it is not \u2018sustainable\u2019! <\/em><\/strong><em>At the end of the year, states can tax individuals in proportion to their overall income, recouping some of those cash payments, if the needs be.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Step 3: The EU must create a European Green Recovery &amp; Investment Program<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>When Europe\u2019s lockdown ends, entire industries will be facing bankruptcy, in desperate need of re-investment and re-orientation.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Europe cannot afford to waste this crisis as it did the last. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The euro crisis left Europe with a lower green growth potential and with less capacity to compete with China and the United States on the technologies of the future. We cannot afford to respond to this crisis <em>with more austerity, stronger divergence, less investment, and a dearth of quality jobs.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>That is why the European Union needs a <strong>permanent post-pandemic European Green Recovery &amp; Investment Program, funded by an alliance of the EIB and the ECB and implemented by a new European Green Recovery Agency.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>DiEM25 proposes that the European Council:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Directs the European Investment Bank<\/strong> (EIB), and its subsidiary the European Investment Fund (EIF), <strong><em>to issue EIB-EIF bonds <\/em><\/strong><em>approximately equal to 5% of the EU\u2019s GDP<strong>, to be backed in the bond markets by the ECB<\/strong><\/em>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Establishes the European Green Recovery Agency (EGRA)<\/strong> with a remit <em>to direct the funds raised by the EIB-ECB alliance toward the green energy union and the provision of public health, public education and other public goods across the Union<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Conclusion: <em>Europe will unify or it will perish. <\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The creation of the euro set the EU on a forked path that led either to unification or disintegration. No third endpoint ever existed.<\/p>\n<p>The euro crisis was put on ice, but never cured, by the interventions of the ECB. But the COVID-19 emergency now makes it impossible for the euro crisis to remain frozen.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The EU will either unify to confront this unprecedented crisis, or it will perish. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>DiEM25\u2019s 3-Point Action Plan offers the only path toward unification. The three policies we propose are immediately implementable and consistent with the letter of the EU Treaties.<\/p>\n<p>They promise:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>To share <\/em>the debt burden between EU member-states<\/li>\n<li><em>To deliver<\/em> the large discretionary stimulus Europe needs<\/li>\n<li><em>To correct <\/em>the EU\u2019s category error in mistaking a crisis of <em>insolvency <\/em>for a crisis of <em>liquidity<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>To protect <\/em>European residents from incomes lost to COVID-19<\/li>\n<li><em>To deliver <\/em>the public green investments to help Europe bounce back sustainably.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Once DiEM25\u2019s 3-Point Action Plan is implemented, Europe will have a chance to become a genuine, democratic Union. The only other option is disintegration.<\/p>\n<p>___________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>DiEM25 is a pan-European, cross-border movement of democrats. We believe that the European Union is disintegrating. Europeans are losing their faith in the possibility of European solutions to European problems. At the same time as faith in the EU is waning, we see a rise of misanthropy, xenophobia and toxic nationalism. If this development is not stopped, we fear a return to the 1930s. That is why we have come together despite our diverse political traditions &#8211; Green, radical left, liberal &#8211; in order to repair the EU. The EU needs to become a realm of shared prosperity, peace and solidarity for all Europeans. We must act quickly, before the EU disintegrates.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/diem25.org\/diem25-presents-covid-19-economic-response-plan-and-green-recovery-investment-program\/\" >Go to Original &#8211; diem25.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Step 1: Issue \u20ac1 trillion in ECB-Eurobonds<br \/>\nStep 2: Inject a \u20ac2000 European Solidarity Cash Payment<br \/>\nStep 3: Introduce a European Green Recovery &#038; Investment Program<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":157202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[1829,1868,1883,1268],"class_list":["post-157201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-diem25","tag-european-union"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}