International Conference on 'Global Europe'

About the Conference

	On Dec 4/5 2008, over 170 people from more than 30 countries participated in highly inspiring debates on Europe's trade policy: 'Global Europe: competing in the world'.
	The conference's key question: Does 'Global Europe' take into account the objective of sustainable development?

Initiators:

EP Partners:

Globalisation Intergroup of the European Parliament:

Keynotes and Panel Speakers

A brief list of speakers [Print]

	Glyn FORD, MEP, Vice-President Globalisation Intergroup, PES
	Glyn Ford has been a Labour Member of the European Parliament since 1984. He is at present a member of the following committees: International Trade, Foreign Affairs, Security and Defense and Petitions. In addition, Glyn Ford is involved in the Globalisation Intergroup as President and Secretary, in the the Sports Intergroup and in the Anti-racism Intergroup as Vice-President. Glyn Ford is a member of the EU-Japan and Korean delegations, while also he was a rapporteur on the EU-ASEAN Trade Relations Report, and has keen interest and is an expert in EU-China relationships.

	Caroline LUCAS, MEP, Vice-President Globalisation Intergroup, Greens/EFA
	Caroline Lucas is a Green MEP for the South East England Region and is also the leader of the Green Party of England and Wales. She has been a member of the European Parliament since 1999. Caroline sits on both the Environment and Trade Committees and is noted for campaigning and writing on climate change, Green economics, peace, alternatives to globalisation, trade justice, animal welfare and food.

	Jens HOLM, MEP, Member of Globalisation Intergroup, GUE/NGL
	Jens Holm is member of the Confederal Group of the European United Left - Nordic Green Left - in the European Parliament. He is also member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, the Temporary Committee on Climate Change, and the Delegation to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly. Before Jens Holm became MEP, he volunteered for Simon Community Dundalk, Ireland (1992-1993), and the Swedish Animal Rights Society (1997-2003). He worked as freelance journalist (1993-2003) and as press officer for the Social Welfare Department, Stockholm City (2003-2006).

	Magda STOCZKIEWICZ, Director, Friends of the Earth Europe
	Magda Stoczkiewicz is Polish and graduated from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow with Master of Arts. She also holds a specialised degree in public relations and European affairs. She is one of the founders of the environmental organisation CEE Bankwatch Network, for which she worked for 12 years, first in Poland, then in Amsterdam and Brussels. Magda Stoczkiewicz is the director of Friends of the Earth Europe since March 2008. She has 7 years of senior management experience in a non-profit organisation. She has advanced knowledge of campaigning on environmental, social and governance issues as well as understanding of human rights and development aspects, coupled with 9 years of experience in the intricacies of EU policy-making.

	Paul DE CLERCK, Coordinator, Economic Justice Programme, FoEE
	Paul de Clerck, who has worked in the environment and development sector since 1990, is heading the Economic Justice Program of Friends of the Earth Europe. Paul graduated law studies at the University of Tilburg in the Netherlands. Since 1990 he held various positions in Friends of the Earth Netherlands. He initiated and coordinated the European wide FoE campaign on ‘kerosene taxation’ and he was responsible for the international department of FoE Netherlands. Paul was an FoEE Board member for 2 years. He is also initiator and/or steering group member of organisations such as OECDWatch, BankTrack, ALTER-EU and the European Coalition for Corporate Justice.

	Charly POPPE, Friends of the Earth Europe
	Charly Poppe, a Belgian citizen, is currently the Coordinator of the Trade Campaign in the environmental NGO Friends of the Earth Europe. He is also one of the coordinators of the campaigning network ‘Seattle to Brussels’ and the European Trade Network. Charly is also a member of the Civil Society Contact Group of the European Commission’s Trade Directorate. He has previously worked as advocacy coordinator of the international Fair Trade associations in Brussels as well as coordinator of globalisation projects at the Heinrich Böll Foundation. His issues of interest are international trade, environment, development, Fair Trade and international governance. Charly has also a volunteer background in various development and Fair Trade NGOs in Belgium. He holds a Master in International Relations (ULB) and a degree in Economic and Social Ethics (UCL).

	Olivier DE SCHUTTER, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food
	Olivier E. de Schutter is the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food (1 May 2008- 1 May 2011). Moreover, he is a professor at the University of Louvain (Belgium) and at the College of Europe (Natolin). He is member of the Global Law School Faculty, New York University; he is visiting professor at the Columbia University, and he is coordinator of the EU Network of independent experts on fundamental rights. Olivier de Schutter made his Ph. D. in Law at the Université catholique de Louvain.

	David O'SULLIVAN, Director DG Trade, EU Commission
	David O'Sullivan is currently the European Commission's Director General for Trade. His services support the EU's Trade Commissioner, Catherine Ashton, in negotiating bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, ensuring that foreign markets are open for EU businesses and that the international rules agreed are actually applied, so that trade policy contributes to the Commission's headline goals of prosperity, solidarity and security both in the EU and around the world. The post of Director General for Trade has brought David back to the Department in which he started his Commission career, first in Brussels and then in the Commission's Tokyo office. David was Secretary General of the European Commission from June 2000 to November 2005, Head of Cabinet of Commission President Romano Prodi and Director General for Education and Training. He also has extensive experience in EU social and employment policy. David has a background in economics, graduating from Trinity College, Dublin and having completed post graduate studies at the College of Europe, Bruges. He holds an Honorary Doctorate from the Dublin Institute of Technology, He is also a Member of the Consultative Board of the Institute for International Integration Studies at Trinity College, Dublin. He is married with two children.

	Péter BALÁS, Deputy Director General DG Trade, European Commission

	Paul HODSON, Deputy Head of Unit, DG TREN: , European Commission

	Eoin O'MALLEY, BUSINESSEUROPE

	Samuel NGUIFFO, CED/Friends of the Earth Cameroon
	Samuel Nguiffo is the Director of Centre pour l'Environnement et le Développement/Friends of the Earth Cameroon. Samuel Nguiffo has studied law and worked for over 15 years on issues related to natural resource management in Central Africa. His main areas of work include the impacts of policies to manage natural resources on the rights of people, the environment, and development of resource-rich countries. Samuel received the Goldman Prize for Africa in 1999.

	Ronnie HALL, independent environmental consultant
	Ronnie Hall is an independent environmental consultant, working closely with organisations including Friends of the Earth International and the Global Forest Coalition. Until 2007, Ronnie was International Coordinator of Friends of the Earth International's Trade, Environment and Sustainability Program, which she helped to establish in 1992. She led Friends of the Earth International teams to WTO Ministerial meetings in Singapore, Seattle, Cancun and Hong Kong; and has been involved in writing and editing numerous environmental publications.

	Anders WIJKMAN, MEP, EPP
	Anders Wijkman, University degree in political science at University of Stockholm, Member of the Swedish Parliament (1970-1978), Secretary General of the Swedish Red Cross, Secretary General of the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, Director General of the Swedish Agency for Research Cooperation with Developing Countries (SAREC), Policy Director of UNDP, Ambassador at the Swedish Foreign Ministry, since 1999 Anders Wijkman is a Member of the European Parliament. Other ongoing commitments: Vice President - Club of Rome, President - GLOBE-EU (Global Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment - EU), Chairman - Plan Sverige, Board member - Tällberg Foundation, Expert Group Chairman for the Swedish Commission on Climate Change and Development. Anders Wijkman has been a member of several government task forces on issues related to environment, sustainable development, energy, foreign aid etc. In April 2001 Mr Wijkman participated in the high-level expert panel on “ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) for development”, appointed by the UN secretary general.

	Ifigeniya FESTAVERA LOTT, Friends of the Earth Nigeria
	Ifieniya Festavera Lott is volunteer for Friends of the Earth International. She is the main actor in the documentary "Poison Fire" on gas flaring in the Niger delta. She has been actively participating in the 2007 World Social Forum in Kenya, Nairobi. Ifieniya Festavera Lott was manager of several empowerment projects, such as the Empowerment of Traditional Midwives (Rivers State, 2006), the Economic Empowerment of Rural Female Teenage Refugees (Rivers State, 2005), and the Economic Empowerment of Teenage Widows& Orphans/Rural Peace Building (Bayelsa State, 2002).

	Shamila ARIFFIN, SAM/Friends of the Earth Malaysia
	Areas of work cover the range of issues affecting native customary rights (NCR) of the indigenous communities of Sarawak and the impacts of activities such as logging, monoculture plantations and large-scale dam-building within the territorial boundaries of indigenous peoples. These include community organising and ground documentation activities with affected communities, lobby work at both national and international levels, assisting appointed legal representatives of indigenous communities filing civil actions on the violations of their land rights and policy research work, focusing in particular on national, provincial and international legislative and governance frameworks. Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) is an independent national environmental organisation established in 1977 to campaign against the deterioration of the Malaysian environment and the destruction of our invaluable natural resources. SAM works with affected communities, from farmers to indigenous communities to ensure that environmental justice is linked with social justice as well being involved with policy and other related advocacy work. SAM has offices in Penang and Marudi, Sarawak and is a federation member of Friends of the Earth International.

	Sebastian VALDOMIR, REDES/FoE Uruguay
	Sebastián Valdomir, a Uruguayan citizen, joined the organisation Red de Ecología Social (REDES) / Friends of the Earth Uruguay in 2003 where he started as a trade campaigner, focussing primarily on the FTAA campaign. He is REDES’ trade campaign coordinator since January2007. After being the Latin American regional representative in Friends of the Earth International’s Economic Justice Programme, he became the Programme’s International Coordinator in November 2008. Sebastian is also involved in the political support committee of the Brazilian Landless Movement, where he notably gives courses about Latin American political issues. He is the co-author of the book “Waters in Movement: The Resistance Against Water Privatisation in Uruguay” (2006) and has collaborated in numerous publications and reports of Human Rights organisations such as Peace and Justice Service (SERPAJ) and the Inter-American Platform of Human Rights, Democracy and Development (PIDHDD), with a focus on environmental conflicts. Sebastian is trained in sociology and holds a specialised degree in political sociology and development.

	Marc MAES, 11.11.11
	Marc Maes is Trade Policy Officer of the Belgian NGO-coalition 11.11.11 and is active in various international networks monitoring and campaigning on the European trade policy

	Pierre JONCKHEER, MEP, Vice-President of the Greens / EFA
	Pierre Jonckheer is Vice-President of the GREENS/EFA Group responsible for relations with the European Green Party. He is member of the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection and Substitute of the Committee on Foregin Affairs, and of the Subcommittee on Human Rights. Pierre Jonckheer became member of ECOLO in 1986. Since 2001, he lectures at the Catholic University of Leuven (UCL).

	Helmuth MARKOV, MEP, Chair of the Committee for International Trade, GUE/NGL
	Helmuth Markov is a German politician and member of the European Parliament with the Party of Democratic Socialism, Treasurer of the European United Left - Nordic Green Left. He is member of the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade. Helmuth Markov is a substitute for the Committee on Transport and Tourism and a member of the Delegation to the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Cooperation Committee.

	John HILARY, Executive Director, War on Want
	John Hilary is Executive Director of War on Want. He has worked in the field of international development and global justice for the past 20 years across a range of organisations, among them Amnesty International, Save the Children and ActionAid. John is the author of numerous publications on international development and trade issues, including: Global Europe: The European Union’s double attack on developing countries and the European social model (2008); The Doha Deindustrialisation Agenda: Non-Agricultural Market Access Negotiations at the WTO (2005); Profiting from Poverty: Privatisation consultants, DFID and public services (2004); Unlimited Companies: The developmental impacts of an investment agreement at the WTO (2003); GATS and Water: The threat of services negotiations at the WTO (2003).

	Jacki DAVIS, EPC
	Jacki Davis is Communications Director at the European Policy Centre, a leading Brussels-based think tank. She is also a regular commentator on EU affairs on both radio and television. Until December 2005, she was editor-in-chief of E!Sharp, a bimonthly magazine on the European Union which was launched in December 2001. Before that, Jacki was editor of European Voice, a Brussels-based weekly newspaper on EU affairs owned by The Economist Group. She was responsible for launching the newspaper in October 1995 and remained its editor for five years. Jacki moved to Brussels in 1992 as EU correspondent for the Daily Mail. She had spent the previous five years working for the newspaper in London, starting as a general reporter in 1987 and working on the newsdesk before becoming consumer affairs correspondent in 1990 and taking up her post in Brussels two years later. Jacki started her career in journalism in 1984 on a local weekly newspaper just outside London, where she worked her way up from trainee journalist to news editor.

	Shirin WHEELER, BBC
	Shirin Wheeler presents the weekly EU politics programme The Record: Europe from Brussels and Strasbourg. She is based in the BBC's Brussels bureau. She was born in Berlin and educated in Washington DC, Brussels and Britain. Shirin has been in Brussels since 1996, working mainly with BBC TV and radio. During her time in Belgium she has also reported for BBC business programmes, local radio and regional TV. She has two daughters.