[E-rundbrief] Info 648 - No to Corporate Europe

Matthias Reichl info at begegnungszentrum.at
Do Feb 21 12:12:52 CET 2008


E-Rundbrief - Info 648 - Seattle to Brussels Network: No to Corporate 
Europe - yes to Global Justice! Statement in occasion of the World 
Social Forum Global Day of Action, 26 January 2008

Bad Ischl, 21.2.2008

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

================================================

No to Corporate Europe - yes to Global Justice!

Statement of the Seattle to Brussels Network

World Social Forum Global Day of Action, 26 January 2008

Member organisations of the Seattle to Brussels Network (S2B) are 
calling for concerted efforts to roll back the strategy of the European 
Union called Global Europe: Competing in the World, the EU's 
exploitative bilateral trade agreements, and corporate power. The groups 
also reject what they call "the false solution of unfair multilateralism 
and the EU's proposals at the WTO."

S2B, which brings together civil society activists engaged in a wide 
range of peoples' movements and organisations in Europe, issued the 
statement below in order, they say, to "express our opposition and 
resistance to the neoliberal trade and investment policies that the EU 
governments and European Commission are implementing in our countries 
and worldwide. Simultaneously, we are also building the alternatives." 
Spectrezine applauds this vital initiative, the full text of which is 
set out below, along with links to information about how you can get 
involved.

Global Europe: Serving European corporations

In 2006, the European Commission (EC) unveiled its new Communication 
entitled Global Europe: Competing in the World which outlines how the EU 
will pursue bilateral trade agreements with major emerging economies in 
order to secure new and profitable markets for EU companies. While 
pushing for even more business-friendly 'domestic reforms', the EU sets 
out an aggressive so-called 'external competitiveness' strategy. As the 
EU Trade Commissioner puts it: "What do we mean by external aspects of 
competitiveness? We mean ensuring that competitive European companies, 
supported by the right internal policies, must be enabled to gain access 
to, and to operate securely in, world markets. That is our agenda."

The core elements of this strategy are:
" Access to resources (from agricultural commodities to energy)
"New and better market access for European products
"Rules securing European investments and intellectual property rights In 
addition to the ongoing multilateral WTO negotiations, the EU seeks 
these objectives by negotiating bilateral free trade agreements with the 
so-called emerging economies such as India, South Korea, the ASEAN 
states, and also Central America and the Andean Region. Russia, the 
MERCOSUR countries and the Gulf Cooperation Council are also on the 
priority list of the EU. The goal of these bilateral or bi-regional free 
trade agreements is to open and deregulate developing country markets 
for European companies, to increase their access to natural resources, 
particularly to energy reserves, and to secure their profits by 
enforcing intellectual property rights and other trade defence mechanisms.

This strategy not only undermines regulation in target countries. It 
also clearly links EU internal deregulation to this agenda. It says, for 
example, that future directives on social, labour or environmental 
issues for instance, should not be threatening the global 
competitiveness of European corporations. In this way, Global Europe 
poses a serious threat to social justice, gender equality and 
sustainable development not only outside the EU, but also within. The 
erosion of workers' rights, the worsening of the quality of jobs within 
the EU, the destruction of a sustainable model of farming is also 
intrinsically linked to the external EU trade agenda. With trade 
liberalisation across all sectors - agriculture, industry and services - 
the beneficiaries are a handful of corporations but millions lose their 
jobs.

Stop EPA campaign needed more than ever

Recently we met in Lisbon from 7-9 December 2007 to express our 
opposition to the "Africa-EU Strategic Partnership" and the so-called 
"Economic Partnership Agreements" (EPAs). These unfair trade deals based 
on an ultra-liberal perspective, threaten the livelihoods of millions of 
farmers and workers of both the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) and 
European countries. We noted the historical and contemporary role of 
European governments and corporations in Africa, and stressed that 
Europe constitutes a direct source of threats and pressures on the 
peoples and the environment of Africa. During the last few years ACP 
countries have been confronted with the reinforcement of policies 
through the EU's proposed EPAs such as trade liberalisation, the 
promotion of export-oriented economies, the liberalisation of capital 
markets, the promotion of foreign investment, and the privatisation of 
public services. These agreements are also motivated by the aspiration 
of the EU to secure or re-gain geo-political and economic influence in 
its former colonies.

In the last few months the EU and the EC have abused the expiration date 
of the Cotonou Treaty to apply pressure and push 20 ACP countries into 
signing very unfavourable "interim agreements". ACP Ministers, meeting 
in Brussels on 13th December 2007, have stated that the "European 
Union's mercantilist interests have taken precedence over the ACP's 
developmental and regional integration interests". The interim agreement 
on the liberalisation of goods trade have been rushed through in the 
last weeks on the basis of draft texts proposed by the EC that ACP 
negotiators have not been able to examine or amend properly. The result 
is devastating agreements, that contain onerous commitments on the side 
of the ACP countries and, among other things, do not offer adequate 
protection for Food Sovereignty and emergent industry. It is clear that 
the EC has deliberately crippled the interim agreements to maintain 
leverage to force the ACP countries to accept negotiations on the 
infamous liberalization of services and the 'Singapore issues' next 
year. The Stop EPA Campaign<http://www.stopepa.org/> must continue to 
undo these interim agreements and ward off further damaging EU demands.

The EU's new external trade strategy is destroying our jobs, rights and 
environment EU policies based on so-called "competitiveness" and 
increasingly open and deregulated markets, have failed to deliver on 
sustainable development and social justice. Instead, tougher and tougher 
competition and trade liberalisation have lead to more insecurity, 
precariousness, deteriorating salaries and working conditions, deepening 
inequalities between countries, regions and between women and men. This 
strategy also puts under threat environmental and health regulations.

For poor countries, market opening means the collapse of farming and 
industry in the face of unfair competition from European corporations - 
threatening the livelihoods of millions. Rural communities, often still 
a majority of the population in the targeted countries, will be 
particularly harmed as cheap, processed and subsidized agricultural 
goods flood developing countries' markets. Farmers, and particularly 
small-scale women farmers, who simply cannot compete with powerful 
European agribusinesses, will be driven off their land.

Trade chiefs from the EU and the United States warned recently that 
tackling climate change should not become an excuse for throwing up new 
barriers to foreign trade. Trade Ministers, whose decisions are 
perpetuating unsustainable modes of production, consumption and trade, 
are directly responsible for climate change. Global warming shows the 
failure of a development model based on unfettered economic growth, the 
irrational exploitation of fossil fuels, over-production, 
over-consumption and trade liberalisation.

While the society has never been as conscious about the social and 
environmental crisis of the planet as today, the political class is 
still promoting "development-as-usual". Instead, we need a real paradigm 
shift.

We demand Climate Justice Now, with solutions including:
"Reduced consumption in the EU "Huge financial transfers from EU to the 
South based on historical responsibility and ecological debt in order to 
support adaptation and mitigation costs "Financing provided by 
redirecting military budgets, innovative taxes and debt cancellation
"Leaving fossil fuels in the ground "Investing in appropriate 
energy-efficiency and safe, clean and community-led renewable energy 
"Rights-based resource conservation that enforces indigenous land rights 
and promotes peoples' sovereignty over energy, forests, land and water
"Sustainable family farming and peoples' food sovereignty

The Lisbon Treaty: the wrong solution to an undemocratic and unsocial 
Europe We condemn the so-called EU Reform Treaty (Lisbon Treaty) which 
reinforces the power of the EC in matters of trade and development and 
further reduces the capacity of citizens to influence democratically its 
policies. The new treaty is deepening the neoliberal policies and the 
democratic deficit of the EU, perpetuating the power of transnational 
corporations and serving the interests of European capital, increasing 
the militarisation of Europe, strengthening "fortress Europe" and 
bringing no substantive protection to European citizens against the 
downward spiral in social and environmental standards.

The main substance of the antisocial character of the "Constitution" 
which was rejected in France and Holland, remains. The new Treaty will 
surely deepen the crisis of legitimacy. The Europe that is being built 
is a Europe of capital, that tries to defend the interests of its main 
economic and financial actors worldwide (entailing both alliances and 
tensions with the United States), guaranteeing also the same interests 
at home, over and above those of its peoples and the environment. And to 
do so, Europe needs a growing internal authoritarian structure, which 
will operate as a "fortress" for the migrants, based and coordinated on 
its reinforced nation states, and a "unified" and structured military 
might to project its economic and monetary-financial power worldwide.

We reject the externalization of borders policy of the European Union, 
the policy of detention, expulsion and deportation and the readmission 
agreements, the Frontex Program, which represents a huge investment in 
the militarization of borders control creating the basis for direct 
interventions in African countries and represents a real declaration of 
war against migrants.

Another vision for Europe: peace, sustainability, solidarity
Our purpose is to construct a world based on the concepts of peace, 
participatory democracy, social justice, human rights, sustainability, 
food sovereignty and peoples' rights to self-determination.

We aim at creating spaces to link current struggles, emerging grassroots 
resistance movements and alternative visions, and articulating social 
movements, NGOs, women organisations, trade unions, human rights 
organisations, farmers, ecological and indigenous movements, migrant and 
refugee organisations towards joint action and reflection.

We are calling for joint strategies to halt current negotiations seeking 
to implement "Free" Trade Agreements (FTAs) between Europe and the rest 
of the world; and consolidating the struggles against European 
transnational corporations, and deepening the process of constructing 
alternatives, to reclaim the right to food, education, health and other 
basic services.

We commit ourselves to strengthen interregional solidarity and 
cooperation among our social movements and organisations from all over 
the world against corporate power and all unfair bilateral trade and 
investment agreements. We commit ourselves to joint resistance against 
neoliberal policies and to build people-centred alternatives.

In particular we continue to campaign together to:

"Stop the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs)

"Stop the Global Europe Strategy

"Stop all bilateral trade agreements

"Suspend WTO negotiations and reconsider the multilateral trading system 
as a whole

"Support the Moratorium on Agrofuels and the fight against global 
warming and the energy crisis

"Achieve freedom of movement for all people

"In order to dismantle the power of transnational corporations (TNCs), 
we aim to:
"Strengthen resistance against the operations of TNCs violating human 
rights and playing a key role in the construction of the neoliberal 
global system
"Expose the legal-political system and dominant institutions that serve 
and protect the interests of TNCs, including the FTAs and Bilateral 
Investment Treaties (BITS) that allowtransnational corporations to 
operate with impunity
"Demand compliance to existing rules, the elimination of unfair laws, 
and progress on international regulations that respect the rights of 
people and the environment, with which TNCs and governments are required 
to comply
"Provide tools to enhance the strategies of communities, social 
movements and organisations confronting TNCs and promoting alternatives 
that strive to dismantle their presence and judge their crimes.

We will support policies in favour of solidarity, peace, the realisation 
of all human rights and the harmony between people and the planet.

In the next months, we will use moments in the political calendar to 
link with the global justice movement:
"The UNCTAD XII meeting in Accra, Ghana (April 2008)
"The Action Week on Global Europe and the EU-FTAs in Brussels and 
different European countries (April 2008)
"The Peoples summit "Enlazando Alternativas 3" and the Permanent Peoples 
Tribunal Session on the occasion of the EU-LAC summit and the proposed 
"free trade zone" (Lima, Peru, 15-18 May 2008)

"The Migration WSF in Madrid (11-13 September 2008)
"The 5th European Social Forum in Malmö (17-21 September 2008)
"The campaigns calling for referendums on (or campaigns against) the 
Lisbon Treaty

Members of the Seattle to Brussels Network, on whose website links to 
the above events and each of these individual groups can be found, are:-
11.11.11,Actionaid International, Action Solidarité Tiers Monde, 
Africa-Europe Faith and Justice Network, AITEC, Anti-Globalisation 
Network UK, Attac Austria, Attac Belgium, Attac Denmark, Attac France, 
Attac Germany, Attac Hungary, Attac Norway, Attac Sweden, Attac 
Switzerland, Begegnungszentrum Gewaltlosigkeit Salzburg - Forum against 
WTO, Berne Declaration, Both Ends, Bundjugend / Young Friends of the 
Earth Germany, Bündnis für Eine Welt / ÖIE, Campagna per la Riforma 
Della Banca Mondiale, CCCOMC Paris, Central America Committee, Christian 
Aid, CNCD-11.11.11., Coordination Paysanne Européenne- European Farmers 
Coordination / La Vía Campesina Europe, Corporate Europe Observatory, 
Ecologistas en Acción, [Fair], Fédération Syndicale Unitaire (Education, 
Recherche et Culture), Finnish WTO Campaign, Food and Water Watch 
Europe, For Velferdsstaten / Campaign for the Welfare State, Forum SYD, 
Friends of the Earth Croatia / Green Action, Friends of the Earth 
Denmark / Noah, Friends of the Earth, England, Wales and Northern 
Ireland, Friends of the Earth Europe, Friends of the Earth Finland, 
Friends of the Earth Germany / BUND, Friends of the Earth Hungary / 
MTVSZ, Friends of the Earth Latvia, Friends of the Earth Netherlands / 
Milieudefensie, Friends of the Earth Norway Youth / Natur Og Ungdom, 
Friends of the Earth Slovakia / CEPA, Friends of the Earth Ukraine / 
Zelenyi Svti, Gatswatch Project, Global Roots, Greenpeace Germany, 
Greenpeace International, Institut pour la Relocalisation de l'Economie, 
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Initiative Colibri, 
International Forum, Les Amis de la Terre, Nature Trust Malta, New 
Economics Foundation, Norsk Bonde-Og Smabrukarlag, Oxfam Solidarity, 
People & Planet, ¡Prou OMC!, Rete Lilliput, SOMO - Center For Research 
on Multinational Corporations, Terra Nuova, The Corner House, The 
Development Fund, Third World Network, Transnational Institute, URFIG, 
Védegylet / Protect the Future, Vredeseilanden, War On Want, WEED - 
Weltwirtschaft, Ökologie & Entwicklung e.V., WIDE - Women In Development 
Europe, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Working 
Group against the MAI and Globalisation, World Development Movement

www.s2bnetwork.org/download/S2B_statement_WSF_GlobalDayofAction_2008

-- 

Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
Wolfgangerstr. 26, A-4820 Bad Ischl, Austria,
fon: +43 6132 24590, Informationen/ informations,
Impressum in: http://www.begegnungszentrum.at
Spenden-Konto Nr. 0600-970305 (Blz. 20314) Sparkasse Bad Ischl,
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