As the EU strives to keep track of the crisis and Spain still holds firm in its struggle to avoid the suffocating embrace of an IMF-EC bailout programme, new measures cause another round of angry anti-austerity rallies in many parts of Europe. Yet, austerity is not only directed against the troubled states of Greece and Spain. It rather concerns all the EU and now affects policies of critical importance for the entire world, such as the EU Budget...

Since the spread of the economic crisis to the EU, following the default of US banks in 2008, 19 EU leader summit meetings have focused exclusively on structural adjustment and austerity policies aimed at harnessing the stampede of the common currency to collapse. Sustainability and environmental policies are notoriously absent from the agenda. As the world’s eyes are turned upon Europe amidst fears of a crisis transfusion to developing economi...

Welcome back! We hope your summer holidays were refreshing enough to help the network cope with a politically hot winter!  Greece still struggling to stay in the euro, Spain getting closer to a full and painful bailout programme and all eyes focused on the ECB’s intervention to save the Eurozone from breaking apart, the environment is clearly drifting away from the policy and economic priorities of most EU member states. ...

The angry riots against austerity in Spain, the “Green 10” evaluation report of the Commission’s half-term and the British Government’s review of the EU’s balance of competences set the environment for this month’s issue....

How worse can the economic crisis get? Much worse, as the developments of this past month prove…  Spain and Cyprus officially submitting formal requests for bailout of their banks and Italy’s economic outlook not the least improving, the future of the € indeed looks uncertain. ...

As societies in Europe turn against the austerity recipes prescribed for the ongoing economic malaise, the overall environmental policy outlook does not show signs of improvement. ...

The environmental rollback and discrediting of sustainable policies as a “luxury” in times of crisis continues and spreads in the EU. This issue of CrisisWatch highlights alarming cases from Spain, the United Kingdom, Greece and Portugal....

As the crisis is showing its ugly teeth on societies around Europe, reports of serious environmental impacts of crisis-related policies keep coming in, often calling for urgent WWF action. ...

In the dark setting of the ongoing financial crisis, a series of very disturbing developments indicate that the environment is already being called on to pay a significant part of the mounting sovereign debt of European states. The response to the crisis on the part of national governments and the European Union puts the environment aside and seriously threatens to undermine important work and achievements of WWF’s work, at least in Europe, ove...