Green European Journal

Veiligheid in Europa: kan de kloof tussen Noord en Zuid worden overbrugd? Kan een gedeelde progressieve visie de meningsverschillen over defensie oplossen in een Europa waar het noorden de dreiging van Rusland acuut voelt, terwijl het zuiden die dreiging als ver weg…

Can Europe bridge its North-South divide on defence? Latvian MEP Mārtiņš Staķis and Spanish theorist Carlos Pérez explore how progressives can move beyond the “realist iron cage” and find common ground on security.
🆕Now also available in Dutch - experience the full interview in your language👇

The Hospitals Curing Both People and Planet The healthcare sector is under increasing pressure from the impact of climate change, yet it also contributes heavily to global warming. Two Catalan hospitals are trying to change things.

The healthcare sector is caught in a climate paradox: it is under increasing pressure from the impact of climate change on people’s health, yet it emitted nearly twice as much CO2 as aviation in 2020. Two Catalan hospitals are trying to change things.

Democratising Energy: Why Gender Matters If energy communities are meant to reshape not only how energy is produced but who holds power, the question of gender can no longer be treated as secondary.

Energy communities are key to speeding up Europe’s shift to renewables. Yet women and FLINTA remain underrepresented in the conversation. As these projects should reshape not only how energy is produced, but also who holds power, the question of gender cannot be left out.

How Critics Are Using Blackouts to Undermine the Energy Transition Though they have been fertile ground for disinformation, power outages can also open discussions about our energy infrastructure.

💡When blackouts hit Europe last year, critics incorrectly blamed renewables, using outages to attack the energy transition.

This piece from @greeneujournal.bsky.social explores how and why blackouts are being weaponised in Europe’s energy debate.

www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/left-in-the-...

Baltic Pioneers: Redefining European Security There is much more to resilience than hard power, writes Arūnas Burinskas.

📖Featured in Unbound: The Battle Over Freedom, the Summer 2025 print edition of the Green European Journal. 🆕Now also available in French, Italian, and Dutch - experience the full interview in your language: www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/baltic-pione...

The Baltics face a defining moment:
keep buying military hardware while social problems fester, or embrace comprehensive security that weaves together defence, social justice & sustainability.

Experts now propose “comprehensive security”: resilient welfare systems, active citizenship, and an economy serving everyone, not just the privileged few.
Examples already exist: Estonia's Defense League & Latvia's National Guard turn citizens into active defence participants.

Adding to these concerns, Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine triggered massive Baltic defence spending.
But the real threat isn’t Russian tanks. It’s social division, and struggling communities being convinced that their governments have abandoned them.

The rapid opening to free-market capitalism looked miraculous: cities gleamed with new towers, successful EU and NATO integration, and digital innovations.
But while capitals thrived, rural areas hollowed out. Factories shut, hospitals lost funding, youth fled abroad.

30 years ago, Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania broke free from Soviet control and became post-communist success stories.
Today, beneath the facade of modernisation, they suffer some of Europe's highest inequality levels. 🧵

Adding to these concerns, Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine triggered massive Baltic defence spending.
But the real threat isn’t Russian tanks. It’s social division, and struggling communities being convinced that their governments have abandoned them.

The rapid opening to free-market capitalism looked miraculous: cities gleamed with new towers, successful EU and NATO integration, and digital innovations.
But while capitals thrived, rural areas hollowed out. Factories shut, hospitals lost funding, youth fled abroad.

The Anti-Orbán Pride: An Election Prelude Ahead of next year’s parliamentary vote, Budapest’s largest-ever pro-LGBTQ+ march offers a glimpse into the uncertainty of Hungary’s polarised politics.

🏳️‍🌈Hungary has intensified its crackdown on Pride. Prosecutors charged Budapest’s opposition mayor Gergely Karácsony for organising last June’s Pride despite a police ban. The ban aimed to divide society and weaken opponents, but it failed. Will Fidesz’s miscalculation affect the next election?

The Tipping Point of Bulgaria’s Democracy? Rebuilding mutual trust between society and state institutions in Bulgaria is only possible through durable democratic practices.

The mass protests that forced Bulgaria's prime minister to step down are a positive step towards active participation, but rebuilding mutual trust between society and state institutions is only possible through durable democratic practices.

Values and Pragmatism: Europe’s Place in a Shifting World In the face of geopolitical tensions, can the European project stay true to its ideals? An interview with Sergey Lagodinsky.

📖Featured in Unbound: The Battle Over Freedom, the Summer 2025 print edition of the Green European Journal. 🆕Now also available in French, Italian, and Dutch - experience the full interview in your language: www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/values-and-p...

Finally, Europe’s global role depends on balancing values with pragmatism. We must engage with partners worldwide without compromising democratic foundations. Dependence on authoritarian regimes weakens the EU’s autonomy and credibility. Freedom means responsibility, not restriction.

His second warning: the far right’s erosion of democratic norms cannot become the new status quo. Common values remain embedded in EU treaties, but they must be defended through dialogue, enforcement, and reform. Rising illiberalism from within is as dangerous as threats from outside.

First, he says, Europe must stop being geopolitically naive. The European project was always a peace project, but it now needs stronger defence capabilities. “We must not let our ideological underpinnings be minimised to a very one-dimensional understanding of pacifism,” he declares.

What role can the EU play when the transatlantic alliance is faltering, authoritarianism is rising, and liberal democracy is under pressure? We asked this question of Green MEP Sergey Lagodinsky, who has lived on both sides of the Iron Curtain.

The Future of Creativity As AI’s reach expands into ever farther corners of our lives, we risk losing our freedom and ability to create.

Unlike AI, humans have the ability to create what did not exist before. Still, we are increasingly delegating our thoughts and creative endeavours to machines. What are the implications for our freedom? Nina George tackles this question in her essay.

Journalism, a Bourgeois Profession? Widespread precarity and poor pay mean that journalists require significant resources, heightening the risk of class bias.

The notorious precarity of journalism has led to a less obvious problem: the profession has become exclusive to those who can endure years of poor pay. Can it be made more accessible and diverse?
✍️ @francesca-b.bsky.social

Every month, The Sprout explores thought-provoking debates around post-growth and other ideas for thriving societies within planetary boundaries.
Also in this issue:
📚Democracies Depend on Reading.
🔮Politics of the Future.

Read the latest: us7.campaign-archive.com?u=fbf70df867...

When growth as usual can no longer be assumed, arts and culture matter most. They shape expectations, render futures imaginable, and catalyse world disclosures. Our urgent task is to trigger beyond-growth imaginaries for a more sustainable collective life.

But today’s understanding of culture as ’’creative industries’’ framework narrows this horizon. By aligning culture with innovation and GDP growth, it marginalises alternatives where arts function as infrastructure for meaning-making, exploration, and critique.

One example is the Apollo programme. Long before rockets launched, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and visual culture had already made lunar travel meaningful worldwide. What arts and culture did was make the aspiration itself publicly legible.

🖼️Can arts and culture help reorient collective goals towards more sustainable futures? The answer may lie in how culture shapes the direction of economies.

Only Non-Violence Can Save International Law In response to the autocrats of the world, Europe should champion a path of non-violent diplomacy.

International law is under attack from Ukraine to Gaza to Venezuela. 🌍 As Benjamin Joyeux writes, “violence betrays the short-termism and powerlessness of those who resort to it.” Europe must champion a ‘’new’’ paradigm based on peace and non-violence.

More Than Just Polanski: The Green Surge in England and Wales Can the Green Party of England and Wales sustain its recent successes and change the UK’s political landscape?

🌱The Green Party of England and Wales’s membership has soared, now surpassing both Conservatives and Lib Dems. The surge is a result of decades of grassroots work, coupled with Zack Polanski’s successful campaign. Can this momentum reshape UK politics?

Partying to Protest: Are Artivists Reigniting Political Engagement? While far-right movements seek to capture cultural production, “artivists” are reclaiming culture as a space to promote solidarity and inclusion.

Far-right movements are capturing European culture, but “artivists” are fighting back. From Planète Boum Boum’s techno-activism in Paris to El Sistema’s music education in Greek refugee camps, they’re reclaiming culture as a space for democratic resistance. ✍️Sedera Ranaivoarinosy

How Are Green Imperatives Affecting Creativity? Creative Europe funding represents a lifeline for many artists and creatives, but it comes with strings attached such as greening requirements.

🎨Creative Europe funding supports thousands of artists, but stricter greening requirements raise a question: are environmental priorities helping the cultural sector or adding another burden?
✍️Ena Hodžić