Blog

Can anything good come out of this crisis? The answer is yes.

By Laura Sullivan, Executive Director of WeMove Europe, March 2nd 2021

In her book ‘Hope in the Dark’, Rebecca Solnit writes that there is so much hope in uncertainty. [1] Amid headlines of 2.5 million covid deaths worldwide -- 2.5 million human stories of sadness, it’s not easy to dig deep and find hope in the uncertainty of what comes next. [2]

So how do we find that hope? Can anything good come out of this crisis?

The answer is yes.

Democracy is more than elections

By Laura Sullivan, Executive Director of WeMove Europe, November 13th 2020

The image of Donald Trump on a golf course refusing to concede election defeat got me thinking. It served as a blunt reminder of just how much power certain leaders hold on to. Admittedly the US is not the only place where abuse of power has gotten out of control in recent times. When I think of Europe in the last weeks, a far less publicised image comes to mind.

Single-use plastics - a story of change

By Laura Sullivan, Executive Director of WeMove Europe, August 26th 2020

The headlines were pretty shocking. Eight million tonnes of plastic dumped in the ocean each year - the equivalent of a truckload per minute. [1] A lifeless whale on a Spanish beach, its stomach dismantled by 29 kgs of plastic waste. [2] The year was 2017 and momentum was building in Europe for a ban on single use plastics. But would enough people actually be willing to do something about it?

Healing Europe

By Laura Sullivan, Executive Director of WeMove Europe, June 25th 2020

I was listening to the radio on Monday when these words hit me really hard: ‘Our country is like a really old house. I love old houses. But old houses need a lot of work. And the work is never done. And that’s what our country is like. And you may not want to go into that basement, but if you really don’t go into that basement, it’s at your own peril.’ [1]

Hope in the Dark

By Laura Sullivan, Executive Director of WeMove Europe, March 23th 2020

It was Fred's birthday this weekend. The party had been cancelled so a friend set up a zoom call and we took the celebration online. Most people hadn't done this kind of thing before and the dynamic was hilarious. At first, we were shy, no one talking. Then chaotic, all talking at once. Poor Fred couldn’t get a word in. Eventually the crowd thinned and we got to talking about the state that we are in.

10 things I learned at the Citizens Assemblies in Europe event, Liverpool University

By Laura Sullivan, Executive Director of WeMove Europe, December 5th 2019

This week I hit the friendly streets Liverpool for a fascinating event to close off an experiment on citizens assemblies in Europe. Over the last year, WeMove was part of a project led by the University of Liverpool to test the potential of citizens assemblies in helping people to understand the EU and to get involved more in European politics. As WeMove’s board member Alberto Alemanno said at the event, if there is something that Europeans do not do together today, it’s politics!