EU Watchdog Radio is a new podcast hosted jointly by CEO and Counter Balance. In the fourth episode, we talk with five experts from civil society organisations about the Covid-19 crisis. The virus as an X-ray: it brings various societal problems that already existed to light.
Laura Ulman from Greenpeace, Olivier Hoedeman and Margarida Silva from CEO, Xavier Sol from Counter Balance and Tove Maria Ryding from Eurodad all highlight a different aspect of the unprecedented crisis that we are facing. They all seem to agree that the crisis shows very clearly that the neoliberal political model is bankrupt.
Almost 40 years ago US president Ronald Reagan kickstarted the neoliberal doctrine with slogans like: 'Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.' Now an invisible virus is forcing even the most hard-core neoliberals, to admit that many solutions to our collective problems will come from governments.
Every crisis also brings opportunities to learn and do things differently. But how to react to this crisis in order to make societies more resilient, sustainable and fair? How will that happen?
Will the current powerful economical players, like Big Oil and Gas, let themselves be pushed aside? And while governments are throwing hundreds of billions, some politicians are very fast in claiming that in times of economic downturn we have no time nor budget for environmental or climate policies and austerity measures should come back into play when the crisis is over.
Who we are
Both CEO and Counter Balance raise awareness on the importance of good governance in the European Union, by researching issues like lobbying of large and powerful industries, corporate capture of decision making, corruption, fraud, human rights violations in areas like agro-business, biotech & chemical companies, the financial sector & public investment banks, trade, energy & climate, scientific research and much more…
You can find us on iTunes, Spotify & Buzzsprout. Stay tuned for more independent and in-depth information that concerns every EU-citizen!
