New book: "COVID-19 and then what?"

The new book "Covid-19 eta ondoren zer?" (“Covid-19 and then what?”) - containing reflections on the challenges we will face post-COVID, both at the level of the Basque Country and an international level - is now available in bookstores from Elkar Press (in the Basque language). 

It features a short chapter from myself on the EU's failure to adequately respond to the pandemic and its consequences, a failure which has served to deepen the divisions already deep-running through the bloc, along with many other thoughtful and informative contributions. 

While the book is in Euskadi (Basque), for those few of you not able to read the language, these contributions, and many more to come, are available in translation on the Telesforo Monzon eLab website.

Eskerrik asko to TM eLab for the opportunity to contribute to this important discussion. The debate on the global response to the COVID-19 crisis - and what this means for those of us trying to build a more democratic, socially and environmentally just society - will continue for some time, and it will need to be both broad in terms of input and far ranging and audacious in scope. I am honoured to have contributed to one of several useful and thoughtful starting points on this road.

The Catalan Independence Referendum – Three Years Later

Three years ago, while working in the European Parliament, I travelled from Brussels to Barcelona as part of a large delegation of a parliamentarians, experts, advisors and international observers to witness the October 1, 2017, Catalan Independence Referendum first hand. The experiences of that brief episode are seared on my memory, and the lacklustre international response remains an indelible stain on the European Union’s hypocritical rhetoric of “protecting democracy and the rule of law”.

Read the full article at Brave New Europe.