Newsletter Fair Politics November 2010

Dear reader,

The new parliamentary year has started. The attention for Policy Coherence for Development (PCD) has remained high in Brussels. PCD was on the agenda of several European Commission meetings, like the DG Trade Civil Society Dialogue on trade policy and its impact on agriculture. Moreover PCD is going global as the MDG summit referred directly to PCD.

Also, the monitoring for the ‘Fair Politician of the Year’ has started again. There are many MEPs who have asked questions with a direct link to PCD, therefore Fair Politics will continue to be busy.

Furthermore we are working on an update of the Cotton case in the light of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform and the new Tax Evasion case will be launched soon.

This newsletter is to inform you of developments and activities of Fair Politics and of European Politics related to development in general.

Enjoy reading!

MDG summit outcome refers to the importance of PCD!

Last month, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) summit took place in New York. The world leaders came together to discuss the progress made towards attaining the MDGs.  It became clear that although some progress has been made, still a lot has to be done in order to achieve the goals by  2015. Fair Politics believes that a key issue is the fact that Western donors still give with one hand, but then take it back again with the other. That is why we have been advocating Policy Coherence for Development (PCD) for several years. We are happy to report that PCD was mentioned in the final outcome of the MDG summit. PCD is going global! Read more here.

Fair Politics at the European Development Days

The European Development Days will take place in Brussels on December 6th and 7th. In cooperation with the Belgian platform on Natural Resources and more NGOs active in the field of raw materials, Fair Politics is organising a side event. The topic is policy coherence toward the good governance of natural resources and its contribution to sustainable development. How to change the European Raw Materials strategy in order to fulfill the goals of internal and external sustainable development. Paul Collier (University of Oxford) will be among the speakers, as well as Claude Kabemba (Southern Africa Resource Watch). There will also be representatives of the European Commission and the Belgium Presidency. Fair Politics is inviting everybody who is interested to visit this event. For registration and more information click here.

Fair Politician of the Year!

A new parliamentarian year has begun. For MEPs that means one thing: the competition for the ‘Fair Politician of the Year’ has started again. Last year Franziska Keller and Eva Joly, both from the Greens, were the lucky winners. Throughout this year, Fair Politics will again monitor all parliamentary questions, reports, opinions and amendments, in order to see whether Policy Coherence for Development (PCD) is being raised. Time for an update of the scores so far. In the lead is the S&D, who wrote a report about Corporate Social Responsibility in international trade agreements and raised four questions so far. Number two is the EPP, with 3 MEPs asking 5 questions in total. Followed by the Greens/EFA in third place, with two opinions on the VPA with Cameroon and DR Congo. The competition is far from over and we encourage all MEPs to refer to PCD in their reports, opinions, amendments, and questions to keep PCD on the political agenda. If you want to follow this contest, check out fairpolitics.eu.

Raw Materials: Round Table 3 with MEP Judith Merkies

We are running out of raw materials, but loads of these raw materials are still to be found in un-used old electrical and electronic equipment. The collection of e-waste in the European member states is at the moment insufficient. In many countries the materials still end up in landfills or illegal shipments towards Asia or Africa. Recycling those materials or re-use the devises, can reduce the scarcity and ecological damage done by mining. During the third round table meeting MEP Judith Merkies (S&D) and Fair Politics discussed this problem with representatives of the industry, civil-society, and the European Commission. The participants of the discussion agreed the new Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEE) is a good first step, yet the Commission has chosen a safe path by focusing on quota’s instead of collection and production standards. On this topic a progressive European policy is needed. Read more here.

EVF Student Symposium: World of Plenty?

The world is facing major challenges. With 9 billion people on the planet in 2050 and the exhaustion of resources, fundamental changes are needed! Are you a student interested in personally advising Dutch and EU politicians on how to mitigate the negative impact of scarcity on developing countries?
 You can subscribe now to one of the master classes and explore, together with an expert of an NGO, a company or a scientist, a specific scarcity issue and the consequences for developing countries. Together with 20 students in your master class, you will deepen your knowledge of the topic of your choice and work towards concrete policy recommendations for Dutch and EU politicians. At the end of the day the teams will present the recommendations to a panel of experts from the development sector, sciences and Dutch and European Parliament.
Venue:    Forum Building Wageningen UR
Date:     Sat 20 November 2010

For more information click here. 

 

Kind regards,

Suzan Cornelissen and Iris Smolders

The Fair Politics EU team