Days of Mobilisation VS EU CELAC Summit
Reclaiming Peoples Sovereignty against the Corporate-led Trade and Investment Architecture
On the occasion of the EU-CELAC Summit
In Brussels, 8-10 June 2015
PROGRAM (Working languages English-Spanish with simultaneous translation)
Day 1 Monday, June 8th – Venue: Residence Palace. Rue de la Loi 155 C – 1040 Brussels
9:00am-12:30 – Public Debate: Reclaiming Peoples Sovereignty against the Corporate-led Trade and Investment Architecture
On the occasion of the EU-CELAC Summit, social movements from Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean extend this invitation for the a Public Debate on the current conjuncture of the intensifying corporate-led trade and investment architecture and the deepening social resistance globally.
The Public Debate will have 4 strands: 1) Framing the current Conjuncture in Europe and Latin America; 2) Current offensive of the corporate driven FTAs and BITs; Austerity, and the global resource grab; 3) New Initiatives and Strategies: Peoples Treaty and the TNC Campaign; the historic opening for a UN TNC Treaty; 4) The Ecuador Audit on Investments: new forms of struggle and resistance.
Confirmed Speakers are Her Excellency, the Head of the Ecuador Permanent Mission to the UN in Geneva, Maria Fernanda Espinosa ; Susan George (President of TNI); Richard Howitt (MEP UK and EP Rapporteur on TNCs); Heike Hanzel (Die Linke German Parliament); Senator Castilla (Colombia); Fernando Gambera (Secretary International Affairs of the Convención Nacional de Trabajadores Trade Union, Uruguay).
There is quite limited capacity, please confirm your registration here.
Day 2 Tuesday, June 9th – Venue:Maison des Associations Internationales. 40 rue Washington – 1050 Brussels
9:00– 9.30am – Registration and coffee. Online registration here.
9:30 -12:30 – Plenary: Reclaiming Peoples Sovereignty against the Corporate-led Trade and Investment Architecture
Plenary will have keynotes and landmark interventions from social movements and trade unions resisting the Corporate-led Trade and Investment Architecture. Interventions will revisit the history of these social movement struggles (making the past current) and identify the challenges ahead in Europe and Latin America and globally. See list of co-convenors.
12:30-2pm – lunch break
2-3:30pm–Slot 1 Parallel Activities
Block 1:“Reclaiming Peoples Sovereignty for Access to Justice”
- Permanent Peoples Tribunal and the Peoples Treaty. Co-organizers: Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity, TNI, FIAN, FoEI, MAB, OMAL, OIDHACO, Mundubat and CIDSE
Block 2:“New Generation of Free Trade Agreements and its impacts in Latin America and Europe”
- TTIP and the Rest of the World – TISA, CETA and TPP (1st Session) Co-organizers: Rosa Luxembourg Foundation, TNI, IPS, Ingenieria sin Fronteras Cataluña, FoEI, CSA.
3:30-4pm – coffee break
4-5:30pm – Slot 2 Parallel Activities
Block 1: “Reclaiming Peoples Sovereignty for Access to Justice”
- Testimonies of resistances to corporate power and impunity. Co-organizers: Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity, TNI, FIAN, FoEI, MAB, OMAL, OIDHACO, Mundubat and CIDSE
Block 2: “New Generation Free Trade Agreements and its impacts in Latin America and Europe”
- TTIP, TISA, and TPP (2nd Session) Co-organizers: Rosa Luxembourg Foundation, TNI, IPS, Ingenieria sin Fronteras Cataluña, FoEI, CSA.
Day 3 Wednesday, June 10th – Venue: Maison des Associations Internationales. 40 rue Washington – 1050 Brussels
9.30-11:00am – Slot 3 Parallel Activities
Block 1: “Reclaiming Peoples Sovereignty for Access to Justice”
- UN TNC Treaty as a new potential avenue for justice. Co-organizers: Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity, TNI, FIAN, FoEI, MAB, OMAL, OIDHACO, Mundubat and CIDSE
Block 2: “New Generation Free Trade Agreements and its impacts in Latin America and Europe”
- EU FTAs in Latin America (México, Central America, Andean countries and Mercosur). Confronting the neoliberal corporate agenda. (1st Session) Co-organizers: Rosa Luxembourg Foundation, TNI, IPS, CIFCA, CIDSE and FIAN
11:00-11.30am – coffee break
11.30am-1:00pm – Slot 4 Parallel Activities
Block 1 “Reclaiming Peoples Sovereignty for Access to Justice”
- Affected communities and the struggle for justice. Co-organizers: Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity, TNI, FIAN, FoEI, MAB, OMAL, OIDHACO, Mundubat and CIDSE
Block 2: “New Generation Free Trade Agreements and its impacts in Latin America and Europe”
- EU FTAs in Latin America (México, Central America, Andean countries and Mercosur). Confronting the neoliberal corporate agenda. (2nd Session) Co-organizers: Rosa Luxembourg Foundation, IPS, CIFCA, CIDSE and FIAN.
1:00-2pm – lunch break
2-3:30pm – Closing Plenary: Reclaiming Peoples Sovereignty against the Corporate-led Trade and Investment Architecture
Report back from breakout sessions, focusing on the build-up of political and economic agreements and our calendar of struggles.
4-6pm–Impunity Tour in the EU Quarter in Brussels. Meeting point to be announced later
Please do not forget to register HERE
Day 3, June 10th – Public Forum at the European Parliament in Strasbourg
15.30-17.00pm
Facing the power and Impunity of Transnational Corporations & the Free Trade and Investment offensive – Responses of Parliamentarians and social movements in Europe and Latin America.
Currently the TTIP is top of the political agenda in Europe. While the EU-CELAC Summit and the EU-CELAC Business Forum opens in Brussels, the European Parliament in Strasbourg is due to vote on the TTIP. This ‘new generation’ agreement includes the highly contested ISDS (Investor-State Dispute Settlement) clause. ISDS is already being promoted for the “upgrading” of the EU-Mexico Agreement. Despite the fact that the series of EU-FTAs already implemented between the EU and the Latin American and Caribbean region have accumulated very negative impacts, including systematic violations of human rights and sweeping resource grabs.
Representatives of Parliament, social movements and civil society will exchange perspectives and strategies on how to strengthen the resistance, including how to be involved with the UN IGWG process.
Please bring Posters and Banners for use during the Activities including the Impunity Tour.
To register for the activity in Strasbourg please contact Paul-Emile Dupret <paul-emile.dupret@europarl.europa.eu> or Sol Trumbo Vila <soltrumbovila@tni.org>
LIST OF CO-CONVENORS (alphabetic order)
Alternative Information and Development Center (AIDC) Attac Argentina, Brazilian Network on Peoples Integration (REBRIP), Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt (CADTM), CADTM AYNA., Center of United and Progressive Workers (SENTRO) , Copenhagen Initiative for Central America and Mexico (CIFCA), Collectif Venezuela 13 Avril, Bruxelles, Comité pour les Droits Humains “Daniel Gillard”, Corporate European Observatory (CEO), Ecologistas en Acción, Enginyeria Sense Fronteres, Enlazando Alternativas, Entrepueblos, France America Latina, Food First Information and Action Network (FIAN), Friend of the Earth Colombia (CENSAT) , Friend of the Earth Guatemala (CEIBA) , Friends of the Earth International , Friends of the Earth Latin America and the Caribbean, Friends of the Earth Uruguay (REDES), Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity, European Network of NGOs Grupo Sur, Hemispheric Social Alliance (HSA), Institute of Policy Studies- Global Economy Project, International Cooperation for Development and Solidarity (CIDSE), Mémoires des Luttes France, Mouvement VEGA, Movement of Peoples Affected by Dams in Brazil (MAB), Mundubat, Observatori del Deute en la Globalització (ODG), Observatorio de Multinacionales en América Latina (OMAL, Paz con Dignidad), Oficina Internacional de los Derechos Humanos – Acción Colombia (Oidhaco), Party of the European Left, Red Latinoamericana sobre Deuda, Desarrollo y Derechos (LATINDADD), Red Mexicana de Accion frente al Libre Comercio (RMALC), Rosa Luxembourg Foundation Brussels, Solidaridad Suecia – America Latina (SAL), TIYE International (Black, Migrant and Refugee women in the Netherlands), Transnational Institute (TNI), WIDE +, World March of Women.
Additional Information
Official Calendar EU-CELAC Summit (10-11 June)
