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Future MEPs urged to act against corporate globalisation

(Brussels/Amsterdam/Bratislava/Budapest/Berlin/London/Rome/Vienna). Today civil society groups from across Europe have started a European Parliament Elections: Act Against Corporate Globalisation Campaign. One month ahead of the elections, the campaign is launched in seven capitals of the European Union by Attac, Friends of the Earth, Women in Development Europe and World Development Movement (1) among others, in the framework of the Seattle to Brussels Network.

MEP candidates from across Europe will be targeted with 8 key demands on the EU's role in the World Trade Organisation. i In the new parliament, a specific committee for international trade will be created; MEP candidates are therefore asked to commit to a sustainable, socially and democratically accountable trading system.

MEP candidates will be challenged with specific questions, such as whether they will:
•  Promote enhanced transparency and democratic accountability as well as limitations of corporate lobby groups.
•  Give up the EU's current push for more investment protection agreements.
•  Commit to corporate accountability instead.
•  Ensure that the EU will take water supply out of the services negotiations.
•  Put an end to subsidized dumping that destroys the livelihoods of farmers in developing countries.
•  Resist US pressure in the WTO against Europe's precautionary stance on GMOs and
•  Change the mandate of the EU Trade Commissioner accordingly.

Results, of which MEP candidate has reacted and how, will be presented shortly before voters go to the polls at the beginning of June 2004 and to the general public and the media.

Alexandra Wandel of Friends of the Earth Europe said:
"In the past, the EU has often played a very negative role in global trade negotiations. With the current crisis in the global trading system and a new parliament on the horizon, future MEPs must commit to scrutinise EU trade policy making and to make it sustainable, socially and democratically accountable."

Contacts:

Alexandra Wandel, FoEE, tel. +49 172 748 39 53
Oliver Moldenhauer of Attac Germany, tel ++49 173-307 1523
Monica Di Sisto, ROBA dell'Altro Mondo, Italy, +39 335 84 26 752
or Luca Manes of CRBM Italy+39 335 5721 837
Matyas Benyik, Attac Hungary, +36 30 252 43 26

Notes:

(1)  The campaign is run by Attac Austria, Attac Germany, Attac Hungary, Campaign to Reform the World Bank (CBRM) - Italy, Center for Environmental Public Advocacy (CEPA) - Slovakia, Milieudefensie - Netherlands, Friends of the Earth Europe (FoEE), Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland, ROBA dell'Altro Mondo - Italy, Women in Development Europe (WIDE), and World Development Movement (WDM) - UK, within the framework of the Seattle to Brussels Network. The Seattle to Brussels Network (S2B) is a pan-European network, which includes development, environment, human rights, women's and farmers' organisations, as well as trade unions, social movements as well as research institutes. The S2B network was formed in the aftermath of the WTO's 1999 Seattle Ministerial to challenge the corporate-driven agenda of the European Union and other European governments for continued global trade and investment liberalisation. It has also developed as a response to the increasing need for European coordination among NGOs and in solidarity with Southern civil society groups.

(2) The full questionnaire is available at http://www.S2Bnetwork.org