Susan George, in a recent interview, asks the Europeans to end the financial control of their governance, to issue Eurobonds, and to ceate a new charter for Europe. Read the interview at the Transnational Institute, here!

If we were to use our possibilities to discuss the current situation and arrive at common conclusions, then I would propose that we take this interview with Susan George as our starting point. Here the problems of the present are analysed in their historical setting, the much hyped "debt crisis" is reduced to realistic proportions, and some of the necessary steps towards the solution of the problems are explained. Let me repeat Susan George's proposals:

"How should social movements respond to the crisis? What alternatives can we put on the table? * Carry out debt audits to determine how much is "odious". * Develop a debt workout mechanism that isn't skewed entirely in favour of creditors. * We need Eurobonds and a new charter for Europe with an ECB that's much closer to the US Federal Reserve. * Use Keynes' bancor as the currency for trade. We'll need another interview to talk about that! * Meanwhile, I'd be more than happy with public, non-profit ratings agencies and governments that govern for citizens rather than for banks."

However necessary these economic and political measures, one may of course doubt that they are sufficient. In order to arrive aa an alternative to the Treaty of Lisbon, I think that we must also take on the problems which belong in the area of defence and military strategy, because

a) the present economy is militaristic, it is a war economy built around the military-industrial-academic complex, which is integrated with the nuclear complex, the aerospace and space industries, and so many other sectors of the economy. This is the elephant in our drawing room, which the media fail to see.

b) achieving "a new charter of Europe" is not possible without a common European understanding of human security in the age of nuclear weapons, nanotechnology, robotics and genetech. The road to a better future for our continent goes via denuclearisation and a military reform, which starts from the idea of human security.