[fse-esf] Charter Network Report - Istanbul EPA 21st Nov 2008

[Peter Damo]

CHARTER NETWORK REPORT
Istanbul EPA 21st November 2008



There were 8 (eight) people attending the meeting out
of which 3 (three) were from Eastern Europe i.e. 2
(two) from Romania and 1 (one) from Hungary.

The participants presented accounts of the present-day
political, social and economic situations, as well as
of the reception of the ESF Charter and of the Lisbon
Treaty in their countries. Following the round of
presentations a number of main ideas emerged:

(1)	The ESF Charter process needs to be re-boosted
after Malmo ESF;
(2)	The ESF Charter process should be better
coordinated, particularly in terms of working together
with other networks. This means approaching important
and common issues, such as the minimum wage in Europe
or the right to water, in a common political manner by
the different networks interested in them;
(3)	There is a need to approach the ongoing financial,
economic, and food crises, as well as the evolution of
them and the alternatives we could propose. In this
context it would be also important to tackle an issue
that has never been dealt with so far, namely that of
the Central European Bank;
(4)	Eastern European speakers agreed upon the
following:
•	on one hand, the political situation in Eastern
European countries is rather similar in terms of
having the political class and administrations
entirely agreeing and complying with the directives
issued by the European Union. This also includes the
full and unquestioned acceptance of the Lisbon Treaty
without consulting the people;
•	on the other hand, the vast majority of the
population in Eastern European countries appears to be
fed up with the deceiving administrations and
political class ever since the early 1990s. One
consequence of the above is that people hardly know
anything about the European Constitutional Treaty, not
to mention the ESF Charter process;
•	there is a need of finding means of increasing the
visibility of the Charter process and of voicing it
throughout Europe.

The main problem approached during the Charter Network
meeting in Istanbul was the organization of the
Charter Meeting in Paris on 5th and 6th of December
2008, a meeting that is to focus on the
democratization of the EU Institutions and of the
European Constitutional process, and on related
issues.
The reunion is expected to be an important stage in
the development of the Charter process and in the
preparation of the Brussels counter-summit in March
2009 occasioned by the Czech Republic taking over the
EU Presidency from France.
The idea of the Paris Charter Meeting is to invite a
broad spectrum of participants besides those already
involved in the process – other Networks (Labour and
Globalization Network, Antiwar Network, and so on and
so forth), ATTAC, political parties, and, last but not
least, Eastern European representatives.

The Charter Network Meeting in Paris would be an open
democratic reunion where no group is placed in a
hegemonic position.



Peter Damo,
For the Charter Network