Giampiero Alhadeff

Solidar

Priorities for Action

    Giampiero Alhadeff stated that the Copenhagen Summit was important because it signaled the end of the neo-liberal argument which had dominated most of the major industrial countries and international financial and political institutions. Since the Summit, there has been a dramatic shift in political power. Almost everywhere, political parties who believed that the market could deliver growth and prosperity and that the social dimension of
society would look after itself, have lost power. The most dramatic shift has been in the European Union where there is now a socialist party in 13 of the 15 member states. Five of the seven world leaders in the G7 are social democrats.

    The recent G7 package of reform of the financial institutions is a signal of the change which has taken place. Another powerful indication was the recent European Union (EU) Summit held in Austria where the fight against unemployment was given higher priority over financial stability.

    Solidar had identified a number of priorities:

A. International Institutions

• Reform of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to include social impact assessments in their lending policies.
  
• Give more attention to the work of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
  
• Ensure that the new round of WTO negotiations reflects the new political map of the world and includes consideration of core labour standards, public health and environmental concerns. Without these reforms, the WTO will continue to be an institution which is deeply mistrusted.

B. International Policies

• Reform demands on international development assistance to make sure that poverty eradication is the overriding goal of all OECD countries.
  
• Unite behind a campaign for a serious consideration of the Tobin Tax.
  
• Ensure that core labour standards and trade are linked not just at the WTO but also in all other bilateral and multilateral trade treaties.

Solidar will also join with other European NGOs active in the Platform of Social NGOs and with the European Trades Union Congress (ETUC) to press for:

• a Bill of Rights for Europe;
  
• an EU framework programme to combat social exclusion;
  
• a social impact assessment of the EU’s trade and economic policies as regards its relations with the South and with East and Central Europe.

    He concluded that the NGO sector is not uniform and, although it sometimes passionately disagrees, the sector knows about collaboration and common ground. Yet the sector is treated as the Cinderella of the political and administrative process. Sometimes the sector is consulted; at other times not.

    In the European Union there is still not a legal framework for the recognition and consultation of NGOs. He felt that the sector needs to strengthen its power in the EU, and that recognition and statutory consultation would be a very important first step.

Giampiero Alhadeff is Executive Director of Solidar, an independent European alliance of development, social welfare and humanitarian aid non-governmental organisations.