Newsletter Fair Politics EU November 2009

Dear reader,

It took a while, but we are pleased to present the first newsletter of Fair Politics EU, which is the successor of the EU coherence programme. This new name clearly represents the political dimension of fighting for Policy Coherence for Development or simply: Fair Politics.

Within this political programme of the Evert Vermeer Foundation, we still aim to identify incoherent EU policies that negatively affect developing countries, to bring these to the attention of European policymakers and to suggest remedies. The goal of the newsletter has not changed either: to inform you of developments and activities within this political programme and European Politics related to development in general.

Enjoy reading!

A new website: www.fairpolitics.eu

A new name, a new website, but still providing you with relevant news, activities and of course the monitoring of EU politics and politicians. Which MEPs are taking efforts to put incoherencies or policies unfair to developing countries on the agenda? On www.fairpolitics.eu you can find the MEP monitor and see for yourself who has posed critical questions to the Commission since the new term! News and monitor items in the past months include the effects of the financial crisis on developing countries, intellectual property rights and health, 'blood diamon! ds', logging, biofuels and child labour, as well as the issues highlighted below.

Policy Coherence for Development in the Spotlight!

Whereas our programme was a true pioneer in the field of PCD and in increasing awareness among European politicians and policy makers, the last few months have shown an incredible rise in PCD interest and publications. A Communication and report on PCD that was launched at the European Development Days by the European Commission, an own PCD report by European NGOs under the CONCORD umbrella and discussions in the Parliament and the Council: it is hot! An interesting job for Fair Politics to make use of this strong (political) momentum. Read more here.

Is the EU coherent in the race for raw materials?

It is a well-known fact that the EU is dependent on the import of many different raw materials, including minerals needed for our high-tech products that often come from resource-rich developing countries. The Raw Materials Initiative that was launched in November 2008 by the European Commission is a strategy to ensure access to these resources for European industry. The somewhat aggressive language and the lack of reference to development implications worried us enough to develop a case study on the issue, accompanied by a very interesting Expert Meeting that might have been of agenda setting relevance. Read more here…

Large European vessels vs. small African fishermen?

In the past few years Fisheries Partnership Agreements, that were to improve the old agreements between Europe and different fish-rich African countries, have been concluded between these two parties. This is not without contention, as these agreements allow ‘our’ European vessels access to African waters with too little evidence of abundance of fish-stock. As African fishermen lack the resources to compete with these vessels, there is a true danger in this that was highlighted in our case study as well as recently by the European Parliament Committee on Development. In the context of a new Common Fisheries Policy and new agreements to be signed, it is good to see our concerns are shared! We will keep monitoring and ! read more here…

Kind regards,

 

The Fair Politics EU team