This website saw the light in autumn 2011. It was a relaunch of the Dutch website “Ander Europa”, which had been founded by left-wing opponents of the “European constitution” (2005). There had also been actions in Flanders against the neoliberal “constitution”, forcing a hearing in the Flemish parliament, among other things. But it was only afterwards that a handful of Dutch and Flemish EU critics found each other. We shared a fundamental critique of the EU’s undemocratic structures, free-market principles and unreformability, so cooperation posed no political problems.

With a four-member editorial team, the revamped and broadened Ander Europa could then start in 2011. It almost seemed obvious that this was just the beginning, and that we would undoubtedly attract new contributors and arrive at some division of labour.

That did not materialise. New collaborators were not forthcoming; few people feel informed enough to write about the EU. There is also the language problem, as most interesting sources are not in Dutch. In some left-wing circles, “Europe” is also seen as an alternative to nationalism, so criticizing the EU seems regressive to them. There were occasional contributors, but the permanent editorial kernel remained limited. In addition, in 2022 we had to mourn the death of Koen, who had looked after the smooth running of the website for many years.

Problems of a political nature had not yet surfaced, but that changed with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The (not very active anymore) Dutch wing of the editorial board appeared to support European arms supplies to the Zelensky regime in the hope that a Ukrainian military victory would put an end to the war. As editor-in-chief, I, Herman Michiel, did not consider this a position in line with editorial policy up to that point, it being clear that the European Union is using the Russian-Ukrainian war as an alibi for a massive militarization.

As a result, Ander Europa is now basically maintained by me only. It is not a personal blog, a lot of translated articles by various authors and organisations are brought in, but the range remains limited and inevitably has gaps. This is by no means an ideal situation, but the dilemma was: quit it, or go on with reduced force. The latter still seems preferable to me, as the mainstream media offer in general only the official version of EU policy. Especially now that the Union has the ambition to become a superpower, critical voices are needed more than ever. Hopefully, Ander Europa makes a modest but unique contribution to this end.

May this also be an appeal to those who have some familiarity with European policy or an aspect of it (climate, environment, social policy, development aid, privacy, monetary/economic/financial policy, …) and agree with the general tenor of this site. Interested parties can get in touch and may count on solid editorial support.