Future of the European Union - Greece: We need a social Union
Ska Keller, President of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, comments on the Future of Europe debate with Alexis Tsipras, Prime Minister of Greece:
"In Greece, Europe broke one of its fundamental promises, to bring prosperity to its citizens. Instead it brought poverty. Europe didn’t find a solution based on solidarity and solidity. Our lesson from this needs to be that we finally create a social union. So far we have only vague declarations on how nice social policies would be, but that’s not enough.
"However, it seems EU Member States have not learnt lessons from the crisis, they are blocking various measures to prevent another financial crisis, such as the creation of European Deposit Guarantee Scheme or the attempts to bring the European Stability Mechanism under the EU treaties.
"Climate protection is a question of survival and Greece suffers a lot from climate change, be it floods or forest fires. But Greece has a lot to offer for climate solutions with plenty of sun and wind. Yet, plans for oil drilling pose serious risks for the environment and the climate that we all depend on. I hope that Greece will abandon oil drilling plans and that it will be a frontrunner for renewables. Islands like Tilos show the way."