The Green European Journal has been launched by GEF at the beginning of 2012, with the objective of providing a space for discussion within the European Green movement, and as a means of engaging the public in a wider debate on European issues. Published on a quarterly basis, the Journal is already at its second edition. The first volume – “Debating in the maelstrom – Do the Greens have the answer to the crisis?” – debated economic and democratic crisis in Europe, whereas the second “Surviving austerity” focused on the Green responses to austerity agenda in Europe.

Several articles in the Green European Journal look back at the causes of the current crisis. French Green Alain Lipietz scrutinises the origins of the current crisis of liberal-productivism and gives the blue-prints for a Green Deal, though acknowledging the political difficulties of implementing such a programme. Lipietz also gives some recommendations on how to build political majorities across Europe which would allow implementing this Green Deal.

But the current European crisis does not arise only from an economic problem that could be fixed by a magic remedy, argues Erica Meijers, editor-in-chief of the Dutch Green Journal De Helling. After sixty years of relative peace and prosperity, she points to the need of reinventing the political discourse on which the European project was originally based. She claims that looking for creating a “European identity” is a dead-end and a potential disaster, under current political and economic circumstances. “There is no such thing as a European identity, but, if we wish, there can be a shared future for people from differing traditions and cultures” she concludes. 

Benoît Lechat, editor-in-chief of the Green European Journal, recognises that the political opportunities for investment into a green conversion of the economy are not currently met in Europe. Therefore he argues for a re-evaluation of the Green positions towards their social base. He recommends that Greens redefine what is socially just and share this vision with as many people as possible, starting with social movements, both new and old. 

In an interview given to the Journal, co-leader of the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament Daniel Cohn-Bendit analyses the political difficulties of the European Greens, few days after the French presidential election. He asks the Greens to remain faithful to their European commitment, especially in a time of rising euroscepticism. He also synthesises his views on the way out of the crisis: Keynes in Brussels.

In a shorten version of a speech given at the University Paris-Descartes reproduced in the Journal, German philosopher Jürgen Habermas calls for more citizens’ involvement in EU decision-making. Analysing the reforms engaged in the context of the Eurozone crisis, he highlights the democratic traps the European project could fall into, by affirming that: “the first supranational democratically legitimated community would turn into a kind of effective and hidden exercise of post-democratic domination”.

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