Thousands of people participated at the protest against the TTIP & CETA agreements on Tuesday (20.09.2016) in central Brussels outside the European Commission.
Organisers, including unions, environmental and consumer groups and public health insurers, said between 10,000 and 15,000 people headed to the EU quarter of Brussels by early evening. Police put the number at 6,000.

Greenpeace activists in chemical protection suits spray painted ‘No TTIP’ and ‘No CETA’ on the roads before several tractors led a large crowd carrying placards to the European Commission, which is responsible for negotiating trade deals.

Two large inflatable horses had been placed outside the Commission headquarters, one labelled TTIP, the other CETA. Critics say that the CETA is a Trojan horse that will usher in the wider TTIP accord.

There is a growing popular backlash in the West against free trade and globalisation, which critics blame for factory closures and depressed wages. Anti-TTIP and CETA groups say the trade deals would hand more power to multinationals and degrade food, environmental and labour standards.

The European Left Party and GUE/NGL left group at the EU Parliament participated in the protest. SYRIZA MEP Stelios Kouloglou said:
This is a very important demonstration against TTIP & CETA. TTIP is the agreement on trade & investments with the United States, CETA is the agreement with Canada. Now, what the leadership of the EU wants is to implement CETA and in this case, then they will say: "ok, it's the same, so we will also implement TTIP". It's kind of a trojan horse, of the invasion of big multinationals in Europe and also vise versa. We are against and everybody is against this because, this would bring more unemployment, less production and more profits for the 1% of the population and losses for the 99%."
Natasa Theodorakopoulou from SYRIZA and party of the European Left was amongst the protesters as well.
Photos here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/131481887@N02/sets/72157674151038425

Video/Photos: Vasileios Katsardis

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met with European Parliament President Martin Schulz, President of GUE/NGL Gabi Zimmer and leaders of the Greens at the EP Rebecca Harms and Ska Keller - Tuesday, 28 June 2016. He also met with GUE/NGL Secretary General Maria D' Alimonte with EP Vice-President and SYRIZA MEP Dimitrios Papadimoulis, and he bumped into Chair of Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs FAWG (ECON Financial Assistance Working Group) President and MEP Roberto Gualtieri.
All the meetings took place after the UK Referendum. The Greek Prime Minister came along with Minister of State Nikos Pappas andAlternate Foreign Minister for European Affairs Nikos Xydakis.

Photos here: //www.flickr.com/photos/131481887@N02/albums/72157669731321382">https://www.flickr.com/photos/131481887@N02/albums/72157669731321382

Video: Vasileios Katsardis

On behalf of SYRIZA, we support Unidos-Podemos with all of our heart.
We hope and wish that the outcome of the upcoming Spanish elections will be the best for them and that they finish as high as possible on the final results on 26 of June.

• Only “united together”, we can leave behind us the extreme austerity and get out of the crisis.
• Only “united together”, we can change Europe and abolish the neoliberal model. Another Europe is possible, a Europe of freedom, democracy and social justice for all.
• “United together”, we can stop the rise of the far right, with a progressive government that will bring change, development and social justice in Spain.

Progressive forces must take the lead in this fight.
Together we can: Unidos - Podemos.
Every vote counts! Cada voto cuenta!

The negative for the EU outcome of the British referendum underlines the need for a change of course, if we do not want to see the unifying process to completely derail the upcoming years. A large portion of European citizens feel alienated from decision-making processes, while the economic crisis and the severe austerity policies have accelerated the impoverishment of those social classes and whole national economies which have anyway difficulties in keeping up with the pace of the ongoing globalization. We urgently need democratization of European integration, with further and more substantial legislative powers for the European Parliament and greater dependence to it by the European Commission. We also need more solidarity not only between the Member States but also within societies themselves, with redistribution of the ones who have to the ones who have-not, and not vice versa, as it is done today. Dare before it's too late.