QCEA lays out ‘hope for the new year’
Five developments that give Friends hope for the new year in Europe have been highlighted by the QCEA
Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA) has listed five key developments in Europe which have given it hope for the new year.
Outlined in QCEA’s Around Europe, these include the new thirty-four-year-old social democrat Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin; and the move by the mayors of Warsaw, Prague, Bratislava and Budapest to sign a ‘Pact of Free Cities’ to work together and stand against the populist governments of their countries.
The other key developments include Sarajevo’s first Pride march, which drew over 3,000 people to the streets of the city; and the grassroots movement the ‘Sardines’ that has sprung up against the leader of Italy’s far-right League party, Matteo Salvini. The other cause for optimism, claims QCEA, is climate progress in Brussels.
According to Around Europe: ‘With the exception of Poland, the EU’s member states have agreed the European Green Deal, a pact which sets the EU on a course for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Reluctant central and eastern states were convinced to sign the agreement after the European Commission pledged a €100 billion transition fund.’
