POLICY DIALOGUE, 11 July 2006, European Parliament, Brussels

Friends of the Earth Europe and Women in Development Europe with support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation held a dialogue meeting “After Hong Kong: The EU’s Responsibility at the WTO: Development, Gender and Environment II” on 11 July 2006 at the European Parliament in Brussels.

It aimed to contribute to a constructive dialogue between civil society representatives from the North and South, members of the European Parliament, the European Commission and other stakeholders that could feed into an EU trade policy that is consistent with social and gender justice and environmental sustainability.

Read the report of the policy dialogue meeting: in Word, in PDF

This meeting was a follow up event to the successful conference “The EU’s responsibility at the WTO: Development, gender and environment“, held in November 2005. Find more about last year conference at www.wtoconference.org and the proceedings.


Contacts:
* Friends of the Earth Europe: Sonja Meister, Trade, Environment and Sustainability Programme Coordinator, sonja.meister(at)foeeurope.org
* Women in Development Europe: Barbara Specht, barbara(at)wide-network.org

The ORGANISERS

Friends of the Earth Europe (FoEE)
Friends of the Earth Europe campaigns for sustainable and just societies and for the protection of the environment, unites more than 30 national organisations with thousands of local groups and is part of the world's largest grassroots environmental network, Friends of the Earth International. The Trade, Environment & Sustainability (TES) programme of FoEE aims to challenge the unsustainable and inequitable nature of trade and investment liberalisation and to propose and promote alternative, equitable and environmentally sustainable approaches to trade. http://www.foeeurope.org/trade/about.htm

Women in Development Europe (WIDE)
Network Women in Development Europe is a European network of development NGOs, gender specialists and human rights activists. WIDE monitors and influences international economic and development policy and practice from a feminist perspective. WIDE’s work is grounded on women’s rights as the basis for the development of a more just and democratic world order. WIDE strives for a world based on gender equality and social justice that ensures equal rights for all, as well as equal access to resources and opportunities in all spheres of political, social and economic life. http://www.wide-network.org

Heinrich Böll Foundation
The Heinrich Böll Foundation, affiliated with the Green Party in Germany, is a legally independent political foundation working in the spirit of intellectual openness. The EU Regional Office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Brussels was established in 1998. It represents the Foundation in contacts with European and international institutions (EU, NATO, Council of Europe), with associations, non-governmental organisations and with the media. Its main task is to provide a forum for dialogue of governmental and non-governmental organisations. http://www.boell.be

PROGRAMME

9.00–9.30	Welcome and Introduction
	Barbara Specht, Women in Development Europe Sonja Meister, Friends of the Earth Europe Ingrid Spiller, Heinrich Boell Foundation, Berlin
9.30–11.15	Rhetoric and reality: What does the EU need to do in the current WTO negotiations to deliver on its commitment to sustainability?
	Facilitated by Ingrid Spiller, Heinrich Boell Foundation, Berlin
	"The EU’s SIAs of proposed WTO negotiations related to natural resources, the European Commission’s policy response" Rupert Schlegelmilch, Head of Unit, Directorate General for Trade, European Commission
	"Linking environment protection and poverty eradication: Why the European Union should oppose the liberalisation of natural resources" Sonja Meister, Trade, Environment and Sustainability Programme Coordinator, Friends of the Earth Europe, Brussels
	" WTO policies and gender: the perspective of the European Commission" Graham Floater, WTO negotiator and social policy desk, Directorate General for Trade, European Commission
	"The impact of trade liberalisation on women’s livelihoods: GATS and water privatisation in Bulgaria" Plamenka Markowa, BGRF , Bulgaria
11.15–13.00	Policy dialogue: Towards a gender fair, just and sustainable EU trade policy
	Facilitated by Raül Romeva i Rueda, MEP, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
	Introduction: Raül Romeva i Rueda, MEP, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance Hildtrude Breyer, MEP, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
	Renate Nikolay, Member of Cabinet of Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, DG Trade, European Commission in dialogue with
	Janice Goodson-Foerde, IGTN-E
	Ronnie Hall, Friends of the Earth International
	Myriam vander Stichele, SOMO, Seattle to Brussels Network

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