Workshops on Economic Partnership Agreements between EU and ACP countries
These workshops are aimed at graduate students, faculty, staff of NGOs and social movements and institutions of cooperation. With the collaboration of experts in this topic, we would like to encourage the debate on EPA. We will have opportunity to know the current status of the signing of the Agreements, to evaluate the role of civil society by demanding fairer negotiations and understanding their impact through 3 case studies.
Talleres monográficos sobre los Acuerdos de Asociación Económica entre la Unión Europea y los países ACP
Con estos talleres, y con la colaboración de personas especialistas en el tema, pretendemos seguir animando el debate sobre los EPA. Tendremos oportunidad de conocer el estado actual de la firma de los Acuerdos, valorar el papel de la sociedad civil en la demanda de negociaciones más justas y conocer sus impactos a través de 3 estudios de caso. Los talleres están dirigidos a alumnado de postgrado, profesorado universitario, personal de ONGD y movimientos sociales e instituciones de cooperación.
Forum Mondiale della Società Civile sulla Sovranità Alimentare parallelo al Forum Mondiale della FAO
Partnerhip for Change, ItaliaAfrica e Coordination Sud invitano al seminario
Accordi di Partenariato Economico e Aree di Libero Scambio:
l'impatto sulla sovranità alimentare
Le attività di lobbying e advocacy della società civile del sud
16 novembre 2009, ore 18.00, Città dell'Altra Economia, Roma
Organizzato da Amici dei Popoli e Cestas (Partnership for Change project), ItaliaAfrica e Coordination Sud
Intervengono:
Monica di Sisto, Partnership for change
Adrien Brondel, Coordination Sud
Nora McKeon, ItaliaAfrica
Babacar Ndao, ROPPA
Elisabeth Atangana, PROPAC
Arze Glipo, Asia Pacific Platform on Food Sovereignty
Representative from EAFF (to be confirmed)
Representative from latin american platform (to be confirmed)
Per maggiori dettagli consultare il programma in allegato
Sito web del Forum della Società Civile: http://peoplesforum2009.foodsovereignty.org/
A trent’anni dalla sua fondazione
CESTAS
(Centro di Educazione Sanitaria e Tecnologie Appropriate Sanitarie)
in collaborazione con CERGAS/Università Bocconi di Milano
ed Osservatorio Italiano sulla Salute Globale
vi invitano alla conferenza dal titolo:
Primary Health Care: quali sfide ed opportunità a trenta anni da Alma-Ata
che si terrà il giorno 24 settembre 2009
presso Sala Conferenze del Baraccano, Via Santo Stefano 119
Bologna
La conferenza vuole essere un momento di confronto sui progressi e sulle promesse mancate della Dichiarazione di Alma- Ata, alla luce di un rinnovato interesse nei confronti dei principi di una carta che, nell’intento dei suoi firmatari, avrebbe voluto rivoluzionare l’approccio alla salute dei popoli.
Scarica il programma
Scarica il modulo di iscrizione
CESTAS participated to the Civil G8 Dialogue, a traditional feature of the run-up to G8 summits, which gathered 258 delegates from Africa, Asia, Europe and South America in the Rome city hall on the 4-5th of May 2009 to draft a suitable document and a list of issues raised with G8 ”Sherpas”.
After two days of debate and confrontation among delegates from international civil society and non-governmental organizations from 37 countries, representatives of NGOs delivered a document with "concrete proposals" to stem the economic crisis and start afresh from a development model based on a new economic and financial architecture. "
Five thematic issues emerged in the final document: common goods, climate change and the environment, food sovereignty and agriculture, global economy and work, global governance. Five interdependent issues that NGOs have reported, "must be firmly on the agenda of the Great 8 and in the new dialogue established between institutions and the civil society'. The next G8 Summit, which will be chaired by Italy and held in L’Aquila, will have the opportunity to rethink rules, priorities and propose a model of effective sustainable development.
Alongside the new economic policies, the necessity to build a new governance has been underlined. It should be a governance that will ensure the protection of global public goods and ensure transparency in global decision-making processes , stressing the 'ethics of responsibility that transcends the dichotomy between the national interest and international solidarity in the intrinsic value of the search for the common good”.
Ensuring climate stability, financial stability, land fertility, a decent life where education and sanitation have key roles, must be the fundamental aspects of the development pattern.
Sergio Marelli, Italian spokesman of the Coalition against Poverty (Gcap, which brings together more' than 70 organizations on the territory and organized the event in Rome), has summarized the fundamental stages emerged in the two days by insisting on 'needs' to work on the channel of communication between NGOs and institutions and by stressing the need to ''protect shared property and the fundamental rights of all people''.
Giampiero Massolo, Italian sherpa and General Secretary at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Italy's presidency of the G8 should make a virtue of ''inclusiveness''. ''This is crucial in order to extend areas of global consensus,'' he told delegates attending the Civil G8 Dialogue,
Massolo recalled that Berlusconi, as G8 president, and US President Barak Obama are to jointly chair a forum of developing economies this summer. Turning to work by the Civil G8 Dialogue, Massolo praised the ''important contribution'' made by this conference each year, as well as its ''fruitful collaboration'' with official G8 organizers.
Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno promised to do his best to ensure Civil G8 representatives will meet with G8 leaders at some point during the summit in July and that he will ask Berlusconi to set up this meeting. This would entail talks between leaders of the world's eight most industrialized nations, representatives from the Civil G8, and the Italian Coalition Against Poverty GCAP. "There is no progress in governance overall if there is no interaction with the emerging economies”, he affirmed.
Business as usual is no longer an option. Therefore the Civil G8 concluded the meeting with the announcement of a new campaign to raise awareness and put pressure on the Great 8 in order to guarantee to all basic rights. A pressure switch will be placed in the main Italian squares of the Giro d'Italia and will ask individuals to 'put pressure' on the leaders of the Great 8.
CMO organised a succesfull EPA public debate on April 23rd night in Nijmegen. The place was 'sold out' (if you can say that with free tickets) with 75 seats. The evening was in English.
There were interviews with two African famers (one from Ghana and one from Uganda). They explained how free trade affected their farming. There was an interview with Burghard Ilge that explained briefly what EPAs are, accompanied by a movie of Lokaal Mondiaal (in English with Dutch subtitles) of a African farmer in Brussels explaining why EPAs in his view were wrong. We had a succesfull theater play GreK and Grip save the Galaxy (that will be gilmed next month and put on the internet - You Tube and out PfC website). After the break there was a panel discussion and with the audience about EPAs: a curse or a blessing? In the panel: an African NGO representative from Ghana, a Dutch dairy farmer and member of a critical Farmers Association (against EPAs) and a representative of the biggest Dutch Farmers Association (pro EPAs). The audience was very critical on EPAs and it was a mixed audience: students from univerisity, some farmers, NGOs and people interested in development issues. We ended with the conclusion: what to do with the EPAs?
All in all it was quite a success.
On Saturday the same discussion will be held (1 hour time slot) on the Africa Day in The Hague in a room with 100 seats (sold out already). This day will be visited by 2500 people.
Korean born Cambridge economist, Ha-Joon Chang, is author of 'Bad Samaritans: Rich Nations, Poor Policies and the Threat to the Developing World'. He is also writes for newspapers and magazines, making development economics more digestible. This video clip from Oxfam's make trade fair campaign reflects on EPAs.
For more details visit Oxfam website.
European groups have been discussing a pan-network, pan-EU campaign for MEPs and candidates in the run up to the EP elections. Here is the final text approved
Yes, I will...
No, I won’t... Provide Leadership in Lobbying Transparency and Ethics
The European public is concerned about the influence of big business lobbyists over EU decision-making. Measures to secure transparency around EU lobbying and to prevent corporate capture of decision-making are urgently needed.
For European democracy to function properly, citizens need to know “who is influencing EU decision making and how much money is involved”. However, the Commission’s voluntary lobbying register is clearly insufficient: most lobbyists have not registered and the register lacks names of individual lobbyists and meaningful information on ‘issues lobbied on’ and ‘how much money is involved’. Other problematic issues of lobby influence on EU politics, such as privileged access to decision makers, have not been addressed.
I pledge that in my role as Member of the European Parliament I will support:
- Replacing the current flawed lobbying register with a mandatory EU lobbying register that includes a list of all individual lobbyists, the legislative dossiers lobbied on and detailed information on the money spent on lobbying per client.
- Ensuring that the Parliament takes all necessary steps to ban conflicts of interest, including barring MEPs from working as lobbyists while in office.
- Securing full transparency around Expert Groups and other groups advising the Commission, and strong safeguards against privileged access and unbalanced composition of Expert Groups.
Yes, I will... No, I won’t... Promote Corporate Accountability
Multinational Enterprises are important players in the global economy and whilst they have the potential to bring benefits to the areas where they work, some also participate in violations of human rights, community rights and environmental law in many countries. These companies’ head office can profit from its subsidiaries’ operations and have substantial control over their actions without being held accountable for any irresponsible conduct or crimes they commit. Victims are unable to get redress for the often devastating impacts. Moreover, the market is distorted by exposing responsible entrepreneurs and small businesses to unfair competition.
I pledge that in my role as Member of the European Parliament I will support:
- The development of a new legal framework for corporate accountability, which will hold companies operating in the EU and their directors legally responsible for the social and environmental consequences of their operations and those of their subsidiaries worldwide.
- Transparency by implementing mandatory environmental and social reporting with accurate, comparable and comprehensive information.
- Legal measures that allow victims of violations of human rights and environmental law by companies operating in the EU the possibility to go to a European court, even if the violation took place outside the EU.
In case you visit/sign the Avaaz G20 petition you will see that once signed/by providing e-mail address you can fill-in a questionnaire (http://www.avaaz.org/en/global_finance_action/) about economic choices/priorities: a potential edu-tool for the PfC project?
Two resolutions on the development impact of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). One was tabled by the conservative grouping and passed (left). The alternative (right) was proposed by socialists and greens but was not adopted.
This web site is produced with the financial assistance of the European Union by Amici dei Popoli NGO in cooperation Cestas, CMO, Hegoa and Risc. The contents of this web site are the sole responsability of Amici dei Popoli NGO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union.
Add comment