Newsletter Fair Politics June 2010

Dear reader,

Policy Coherence for Development (PCD) has been a hotly debated topic within the European Union these last few months. The European Commission published their PCD work programme and Franziska Keller's Report on "EU Policy Coherence for Development and the Official Development Assistance plus concept" was adopted in the Plenary this May. Fair Politics has therefore been busy staying on top of all these developments.

Furthermore the cases on Intellectual Property Rights and the Fisheries Partnership Agreements have been updated and can be found on the website. Currently a new case study on Illicit Financial Flows is being developed. 

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

Enjoy reading!

Presenting Ghana Impact Study and Awarding the Fair Politician of the Year

On the 29th of June, 2010, Fair Politics will be presenting  the Impact Study conducted by Fair Politics in Ghana in relation to Policy Coherence for Development (PCD). EU policies, like trade and migration have negative impacts on the development in Ghana and therefore Fair Politics calls attention on the incoherence with the EU development policy by bringing together policy makers, civil society and experts in two panel discussions: one on "the impact of the Economic Partnership Agreement on Ghana" and another on "evidence based PCD."

After the presentation and panel discussions Fair Politics will be awarding the Member of Parliament (MEP) who has shown the most effort to make EU Policies more coherent, as the Fair Politician of the Year. Thus far the race for the Fair Politician of the Year title is close and very exciting. Eva Joly still spearheads the race with eight points. Not far behind her are Kader Arif, Enrique Guerrero Salom and Franziska Keller. Although the lead is occupied by a Greens/EFA politician, the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) as a political group as a whole are the most active in relation to PCD. With almost 40 points they are way ahead of the game. Joe Higgins from the GUE/NGL leads his political group and Charles Tannock leads the ECR. Read more here.

Fair Politics in Senegal

On may the 18th and 19th Fair Politics was represented at a conference in Dakar, Senegal. The conference was organized by the Gabriel Peri Fondation of France in cooperation with the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung of Germany, on the theme; The Global Crisis in Africa: what are the changes? Tuesday morning on the 18th, the conference was opened by Amath Dansokho, General Secretary of PIT-Senegal. Suzan Cornelissen, policy officer Fair Politics, delivered a speech during the first panel discussion, concerning Policy Coherence for Development in the light of the crises. Read more here.

PCD Report Adopted in Plenary

On the 18th of May, at the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, the MEPs voted on Franziska Keller’s (Greens/EFA) report on PCD. The votes on the report as a whole and the separate articles were close calls, with only a few votes deciding the majority. The ECR and the EPP voted against the report, but in the end the report (motion for a Resolution) was adopted. Read more here.

Raw Materials: Round Tables with MEP Judith Merkies

Fair Politics in cooperation with Member of Parliament Judith Merkies (S&D) has hosted the beginning of a series of expert round tables in relation to raw materials. Raw materials, often found in developing countries, are running out because of the dramatic population growth and increase in use due to economic and technological development. This will have problematic consequences for the whole industry, whether at the beginning or the end of the production chain, and on development in general. Besides its increasing scarcity, other issues concerning raw materials are the “unfair” spacial distribution and the environmental and social concerns during extraction and production. MEP Merkies and Fair Politics therefore invited representatives of the European Commission, OECD, development and environmental organizations and academia to discuss and debate the problems and solutions. Read more here. 

 

Kind regards,

Suzan Cornelissen and Hanneke de Groot

The Fair Politics EU team