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The numbers of deaths in Syria and Iraq are deeply disturbing. But the numbers create the false impression that civilians are merely victims of violent conflict, passively waiting to be overwhelmed by violence or exhaustion.

“War,” said the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus, is the “father of all things.” In view of the bloody – indeed barbaric – events in the Middle East (and in Iraq and Syria in particular), one might be tempted to agree, even though such ideas no longer seem to have a place in the postmodern worldview of today’s Europe.

Major global conflicts are not resolved in the Dutch Parliament. Nor is The Hague the centre of the world. The Netherlands’ influence is determined by the extent to which it collaborates with other countries. GroenLinks therefore needs to look across the border when defining its position on military intervention. The opinions of our allies should be taken into account.

At first glance, sharing initiatives would appear to be important elements for building an economy based on solidarity and sustainability. Yet, these different models of sharing do not generate the same societal and financial return. Some of them, such as Uber, are forms of ‘sharewashing’. In fact, Uber’s business model, financed by Goldman Sachs, is at the polar opposite of sharing.

Halfway between a structured party and an explosive grassroots movement, Podemos remains a difficult-to-describe political UFO.

Since 2000, the EU has deployed about 140 election observation missions. Below you can read my experiences as EU EOM-Chief Observer for the 2013 general elections in Honduras.

The European Commission recently released its vision for the global climate change agreement, which is due to be adopted in Paris in December. It is worth noting that the EU is the first negotiating party to present its offer for the Paris agreement. Nevertheless, the extent to which the offer paves the way to an ambitious climate deal in Paris is questionable indeed.

Even if SYRIZA is defeated at the end, forced to comply with Europe’s inflexible neoliberal doxa, it has already achieved a first small victory: political disagreement, that is at the very heart of democratic dialogue.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s investment plan to kickstart the European economy proposes solutions based on the outdated assumption that growth in terms of construction of large infrastructure projects is the way forward. A more imaginative approach would be to look beyond this, and to put welfare and sustainability at the core of an ambitious long-term plan, which could make Europe’s economic future seem much more bright.

TTIP and the other bilateral agreements of its kind are part of a political power struggle about influence and profits. But who are the players and the main winners in the distribution poker? A historical analysis demonstrates that, when transparency and reliable information are absent, citizens are usually the ones who lose out.