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Wednesday, March 26, 2008 |
| Week of strategy and action against EU FTAs
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Brussels and European capitals, 6-11 April 2008
Invitation to a Public Hearing in the European Parliament on EU Free Trade Agreements
Brussels, 9 April 2008 (9:00 – 13:00)
Over 40 delegates from movements and organisations from the Global South will visit Europe and join together with European organisations to sound the alarm on EU Free Trade Agreements (FTAs)
Since the end of the 1990s, the European Union has pursued a multi-facted trade strategy: at the same time as pursuing multilateral negotiations it has also been pushing for bi-lateral and bi-regional agreements (covert FTAs named: 'Association Agreements' and 'Economic Partnership Agreements' (EPAs)) with specific countries (Mexico, Chile, South Africa) and regions in Latin America, Africa, and Caribbean and
the Pacific (ACP) countries.
However, by 2006 the EU decided to launch its most aggressive trade and investment strategy, identifying FTAs as the main framework within whichto achieve sweeping liberalisation. This strategy is elaborated in the EC Communication Global Europe: Competing in the World. This new and far-reaching, TNC-serving, European strategy, marks a new phase in EU trade policy. Since the launch of this communication, the EU has begun negotiations with: the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN),
Central America Region, Andean Community of Nations (CAN), South Korea, and India. Other key targets have also been identified: the MERCOSUR region (where the EU-MERCOSUR FTA has been stalled for some time), the Euro-Med Free Trade Zone, the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC). The EU is also pushing for the creation of a Free Trade Area particularly focusing on the US and Canada. Throughout 2007, the Commission has pursued a divide and rule strategy with regards negotiations with ACP countries.
Since the beginning of these negotiations social movements and NGOs, both from the regions of the South as well as from Europe, have been critically assessing, strategizing and in many cases openly opposing the content and form of these negotiations. From Mexico to Chile, Africa to the Caribbean, South Korea to Thailand, initiatives attempting to tackle the negative aspects of these negotiations began in isolation; now, as the EU strategy is being seen as a much more systemic process we see that it is necessary to ally our efforts, strategies and mobilisations.
The overall objective of the public hearing is to assess the state of play of the EU trade offensive, make its impacts in the South and in Europe known to a wider audience and to develop appropriate policy responses.
Organised by: Seattle to Brussels Network (S2B), Hemispheric Social Alliance (HSA), Africa Trade Network (ATN), Korean Alliance against EU FTAs (KoA), Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), Asia-Europe People's Forum network (AEPF-EU ASEAN FTA), Enlazando Alternativas (Bi-regional network Europe, Latin America and Caribbean), Transnational Institute (TNI), 11.11.11., Focus on the Global South, FDCL, Ecologistas en Acción, War on Want, WEED, WIDE, Both Ends, SOMO, World Development Movement (WDM), Friends of the Earth EWNI, Friends of the Earth Europe,
Friends of the Earth International, Oxfam Solidarity Belgium, Terra Nuova, Campagna per la Reforma della Banca Mondiale, FAIR, Mani Tese, Corporate Europe Observatory, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), ATTAC Austria.
With the collaboration from: Our World Is Not For Sale Network, Heinrich Böll Foundation, ICCO, Oxfam-Novib, IGTN, Action Aid and European Parliamentary Group GUE/NGL.
For more info: www.S2Bnetwork.org - pietje.vervest@tni.org -
agroecologia@ecologistasenaccion.org
Please note that you should register before April 1, thank you very much!!!
Kind regards and our best wishes,
Seattle to Brussels Network
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