The Nobel Prize winning European Union is trying to force indebted nations to privatize critical natural resources. The European Commission is insisting that privatization of municipal water supplies must be a condition to receive future bailouts. As in, if nations like Greece, Portugal, and Spain want to receive bailouts in the future – then they have to hand of their most critical resources – like water – over to transnational corporations to run for profit.

Several organizations including Food & Water Europe and the Blue Planet Project have pushed back against these demands. As the Directors of European Affairs with Food & Water Europe said about the privatization demands, “This really demonstrates how the Commission has lost touch with reality. Their ideological arguments are not based on substantiated facts and goes to the extreme of ignoring the democratic will of the people.” A letter has been sent to the Vice President of the European Commission, calling for the privatization plan to be ditched.

The battle happening right now – and well into the future – will be over our commons. And we must make sure that “We the people” remain the stewards of our commons – and not transnational corporations looking to exploit resources for a profit.