[fse-esf] Grant from Malmö Municipality for ESF 2008

[Sara Andersson]

Dear all,
some good news for the new year from Sweden and Malmö!
Just now, the municipality of Malmö officially decided to grant the
ESF 2008 3,1 million swedish kronor (SEK), which is approximately 300
000 euro.

Se a translated pressrelease from Malmö Municipality below (sorry for
any mistakes, i wanted to do it fast for you ;-):

In solidarity,
Sara Andersson
Coordinator Nordic OC

Malmö 2008 01 09

Municipality contributes 3,1 millions to European Social Forum in Malmö

The 17-21 September  European Social Forum  will be arranged in Malmö,
with up to
20 000 participants from all over Europe.

The municipality council have decided to contribute with 2,5 million
SEK towards the realisation of the event, and assumes that also the
other entities from where the organisers have applied for funding
contribute their parts for finacing the forum.

On top of that the municipality board contribute 600 000 SEK to the
leisure department of the municipality to employ a coordinator for the
contacts between Malmö and the organising committee of ESF 2008.
This is due to the demanding charachter of the project, not in the
list with respect to logistics and technical issues.  The members of
the organising committee  includes among others unions, envipronmental
movements, popular education groups, human rights groups, educational
associations, feminsist movements, solidarity movements and
anti-rasist movements.

The event is described as a big cultural and political meeting place
with hundreds of workshops, seminars and paneldscussions.
Malmö Peoples Park will be the main venue but also other venues and
spaces will be used.

The event has earlier taken place in Florens, Paris, London and Athens.

- This great event will mean very much positive for the image of Malmö
as an event and youth city, says the president of the municipality
council Ilmar Reepalu (social democrate). And apart from that, the
European Social Forum deals with issues of great interest for Malmö
municipality and this is the reason why we are also prepared to share
some of the cots for realising this event.

Contact:

Ilmar Reepalu +46-40-34 10 02

Daniel Persson +46-40-34 10 04 or +46-709 503 764

Bertil Månsson, press responsible +46-40-34 10 05 or +46-70 623 85 71