A Modest Proposal for Transforming Europe: Yanis Varoufakis at TEDxAcademy

Professor Varoufakis proposes a decentralized system for europe in order to transform it before the crisis of the system crashes Europe. He studies all the different possibilities of actions that can be taken and explains why his proposal is the best option.

When Gandhi was asked once
to comment on European civilization,

his quip was,
"It would be a very good idea."

When asked today about
our views on the European Union,

I think we can be excused
to reply in a similar fashion.

What a splendid idea it would be
if we could only pull it off.

United only in name,

the European Union is, I'm afraid,

in a process of disintegration
as we speak.

With the commitment and determination
of a termite colony,

which is eating into the foundations,

very soon there will be nothing left
but an empty shell,

to remind us of the lofty ideal,
that used to be the European Union.

In Agatha Christie novels

when the reader comes across
in the prologue a group of characters,

upper class characters usually
that are congregating some chateau,

the reader knows what to expect,
a series of murders.

Similarly, today when we hear that our
European politicians are gathering today

or together we know what to expect,
a comedy of errors

which will be wrapped up
in triumphant rhetoric,

but which very soon will prove
to be nothing more

than dangerous harmful waffle.

To err is human.

But to mess up spectacularly

we need an elite
made up of prime ministers,

presidents, ministers,
apparatchiks, opinion makers

who are determined not to face up

to a systemic crisis systematically.

Alas, at least now we have enough evidence

that renders all such denial inexcusable.

Humanity has not surprised itself
very often

but it has done so twice in the past.

Οnce in 1929 and yet again
more recently in 2008.

1929 ought to have taught us
a very simple binary twin lesson.

First that the first victim of such
a crisis is the common currency.

It was the gold standard in 1929,
it is the Euro today.

The second victim
is of course truth and civility.

One such terrible crisis hits the world.

A Hobbesian war of all against all
is unleashed on an unsuspecting humanity

and the first victim is our capacity
to recognize the systemic crisis

we are in, as a systemic crisis.

And therefore it renders us incapable
of accepting our responsibility

for at least a portion of that crisis.

Thrillers begin with
some cunning detective who is unmasking

one shady character after the other.

But good thrillers,
I submit to you,

do not end with
the unveiling of the perpetrator.

Τhey go one step further.

Τhey reach the momentus moment

when the cunning detective
inadvertently unmasks himself.

Bewildered he is staring
at his own image in the mirror.

This crisis is having
a similar effect on all of us.

Our masks are falling.

Unscrupulous bankers, inane politicians,

conniving entrepreneurs,
cynical academics,

uncritical citizens,
who are all being unmasked

but as their masks keep falling
the dejection is becoming generalized.

Meanwhile the human costs
are mounting up

and the only way of making sense of them

and measuring them sensibly
is by means of counting lost generations.

It is time to transform Europe
and to be transformed in the process.

Now, the medical profession
only very recently

managed to save
more people than it killed.

Up until the 1920s or so
the disease was preferable to the cure.

Similarly with the Εuro crisis now

our European leaders are enacting,

what I call a poisonous medicine.

Toxic bailouts, inane austerity.

We created, in order to salvage
a Εuro system, a currency union

which was never meant,
never designed to sustain

the catastrophe of 2008,

the shockwaves of that great earthquake.

What we have done is we created a scaffold

which is, instead of helping
the edifice from collapsing

it is putting more pressure on it.

We've created
this European Financial Stability

or Instability Facility

and we modeled it.

We created it in the image
of Lehman Brothers' infamous derivatives.

It was as if we took two stones

and we tied them together
by means of a string,

hoping they will float more readily.

The result of course
is the uncontrolled disintegration

that we are experiencing.

Now, by now most people
are realizing this.

So what we have here is
a new Jerusalem that is being canvased.

It comes in the form
of the so called "Federal Option."

Well-meaning Europeans
and some friends from federal field

recite this litany of federal concepts,
ideas, suggestions.

I'll just give you some.

We hear of the importance of forging
a Fiscal or a Transfer Union in Europe,

of having a Federal Treasury,

of giving a new Leviathan,
a new Economic Czar

the power to rule over all of us
with an armed fist and keep us in awe.

What we hear about is Centralized
Disposal of National Assets,

particularly of the Greek kind.

The laws of National Sovereignty

as a price we have
to pay for this Fiscal Union

and of course the dreaded treaty changes

that have to go through
27 parliaments and/or electorates.

I submit to you that this is both
unworkable and undesirable.

Why is it unworkable?

Because
- and this is a message to federalists -

the worst enemy of federalism
at the moment is itself.

And the reason why
I'm saying this is because

if we move in the federals' direction

the crisis is certain to outpace us.

It would run faster than we do.

And when the treaty changes take longer
than the collapse of the Euro,

all we will be left with
is the smouldering mess

in which there will be
nothing left to federate.

But there is a second reason
why this Federal Option needs to be shunt

and it is that if the United States
of Europe is a good idea,

it is not an idea that should be
wasted and subsumed

in the context of trying
to solve the current crisis.

Let me put it very simply.
The Federal Option will only be possible

once the crisis is over,
not as an antidote to the crisis.

We will only be capable
and worthy of federation,

when as European we can imagine the future

in which Greeks and Germans

will be voting in Greek and German
politicians to represent us.

We will only be able to affect
a decent Federal Europe

when we can imagine a situation
where our national armies

are dissolved and are merged
into a common European Defense force.

We are only going to be able
to put together a decent Federation

if we can imagine a situation
where our views are assessed

within Europe on the basis
of their merits and the merits alone,

what the ancient Athenians
used to refer as "Isigoria."

As opposed to judging what somebody says

on the basis of the who they are,
what accent they speak in

which country they come from,

and finally at a symbolic,
but a very important level,

let me say this, we are only going
to be capable of a proper federation

when we can decide as Europeans
what to print on our euro notes.

Instead of these abstract bridges
and gates that symbolize one thing,

our incapacity to agree on common symbols.

So if I'm right that the new Jerusalem
is not really a new Jerusalem,

and that it is putting forward
an unworkable and undesirable idea,

which will also lead
to uncontrolled disintegration,

then what is the alternative?

Well, let me suggest to you
that before we agree in an alternative,

perhaps we should agree
on some shared principles

that should govern our future.

Τhese future principles
may seem contradictory

but they can be rendered harmoniously

and if they can't then we have no future.

Let me give you examples.

One principle is that I think we should
end the perfectly partitioned Europe

that we created in Maastricht
in order to create the Euro,

while at the same time however,
strengthening National Sovereignty

and empowering National Responsibility
within that model.

Another set.

End the pseudo solidarity

which is being imposed upon
the Dutch and the Germans

in order to give bailouts, pretend
bailouts to the Greeks and to the Irish.

Stop inane austerity which is only
making the debt crisis worse.

Ignore all the calls for debt buybacks
which will not work,

but at the same time integrate investment
and management of our problems

like existing debt and banking losses.

This is what I refer to
as decentralized europeanization

so allow me an acronym.

Decent Europe.

Europeanize what?

Free realms.

We need a management
of existing debt at a European level.

We need management of the banking sector

which is collapsing all over us,

and we need a europeanized
investment policy in aggregate.

How do we do this
without treaty changes and federation?

We already have existing
institutions in Europe

and each one of them
can be assigned one of these tasks.

I'm not going to go into this.

This is not the place or the time.

You can see more
of this proposal elsewhere.

All I want to do now
is to give you a flavor

of what the whole purpose of this is.

Decentralized europeanization
creates circumstances

for national sovereignty
and national responsibility

to be strengthened.

Because if we integrate
these three spheres in Europe

of existing debt, of banks
and investment flows,

then at the national level

each member state
can run a balanced budget,

and can learn to live within its means,

and also to be empowered
within these limits

to exercise a full national sovereignty.

So I present
this Decent Europe proposal to you

as if you want a forger
of a future Federation's prerequisite,

which I already mentioned
and I won't mention again.

Let me finish by reminding you of a myth,

according which Sibyl of Cumae

offered Tarquinius Superbus,
the king of Rome at the time,

the nine books of wisdom at a price that
Tarquinius considered to be exorbitant

and therefore he said no to the offer.

Sibyl as you all know started burning
one of these volumes after the other

until Tarquinius relented agreeing
to pay the original high price

for the remaining three volumes.

Let me suggest that the European crisis
is following Sibyl's strategy.

The problem is that our European leaders
keep saying no

and therefore threatening

to allow our common heritage
to burn in its entirety.

Decentralized europeanization
offers Europe a chance

to save its last three books
of wisdom or the equivalent.

It offers us a chance
to usher in a new era

in which Europeans,
Northern and Southern,

Western and Eastern,
can stare into each others eyes

and see and recognize a partner.

If we miss this chance,

then Europe is going
to be dragging the whole planet

into a despicable mire
for a third time in a century.

It is our duty and over overarching
obligation to prevent this.

Thank you.

(Applause)