History of the Asia Europe People's Forum

Asia Europe People's Forum

• Governance and Structures of the Asia Europe People’s Forum
• AEPF Charter

How did the AEPF begin?

AEPF emerged in the mid 1990s from a common desire and need among people’s organisations and networks across Asia and Europe to open up new venues of dialogue, cooperation and solidarity.

The first AEPF bi-regional conference was organised in Bangkok on the occasion of the first ASEM in 1996. Since then People’s Forums have been held bi-annually as an Alternative Summit to the ASEM. ASEM stands for Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM), the official meeting between heads of state of the European Union and 16 Asian countries¹ . Since Bangkok, People’s Forums have been held in London (1998), Korea (2000), Denmark (2002), Vietnam (2004) and Finland (2006). The next ASEM will be held in China in 2008. The AEPF network has expanded over the years and has mobilised new organisations and movements from the AEPF host countries.

From its beginnings, the AEPF has provided a space for social actors in each region to:

• strengthen network building on a national and regional level and undertake cross-regional initiatives and campaigns
• analyse issues of common interest such as security, militarisation and neo-liberal globalisation and its consequences for the peoples in each region and develop alternatives
• provide people’s organizations and networks with a channel for critical engagement with official policies of ASEM countries

In 1998, a ‘People’s Vision towards a more just, equal and sustainable world’ was elaborated and widely endorsed by hundreds of people’s organisations and networks. It was later revised and endorsed at the ASEM 2000 Peoples Forum in Seoul. An AEPF Charter of Principles was adopted in December 2005.

Who are we and what are our objectives?

The purpose of this bi-regional network between organisations and movements from Asia and Europe is to contribute to a world based on the concepts of peace, participatory democracy, social justice, human rights, food sovereignity, sustainability and people’s rights to self-determination. The AEPF is a space to link struggles and visions on alternatives from both regions.

The formation of the bi-regional network opens a new chapter in people to people relations between civil society organizations in Asia and Europe. Social actors from both regions recognize the growing significance of inter-governmental relations between Asia and Europe and the necessity to develop new political and organizational responses.

The AEPF has positioned itself as a space for political and bi-regional mobilization. The network seeks to develop alternatives to neo-liberal policies in both regions, in particular against policies of the European Union that affect the Asian region.

Moreover, the AEPF advocates a positive agenda of joint proposals and demands that enable us to influence policy on EU-Asia relations at the ASEM government and EU level and to define an action plan as civil society on a variety of issues concerning both regions.

What are the Forum’s key initiatives?

Every two years we organise a People’s Forum as an Alternative Summit to the ASEM. Based on shared struggles, work and experiences priority issues in the bi-annual forum have been:

• Participatory democracy and human rights
• Peace and security
• Social and economic rights
• Environmental justice

Although organising People’s Forums held in parallel to official Summits is neither the beginning nor the end of the network’s activities and agenda, the holding of these counter-summits do provide key opportunities for strengthening and consolidating the work of the network and for making it visible. Currently, efforts along these lines are being explored on what appropriate forum can be organised in China in 2008 when China is hosting the ASEM. The AEPF also carries out campaigns. Key campaign at this moment is the campaign against the EU Free Trade Agreements with Asia.

Next steps
In Europe, AEPF wants to contribute to a deep and critical reflection on the future of the European project. The European Constitution triggered a crisis and the EU’s new strategy for a ‘Competitive Europe’, not only represents an attack on the model of a ‘Social Europe’ but also includes an aggressive pro-business agenda that promotes far-reaching free trade agreements (FTAs) with regions in the South, among them with ASEAN, Korea and India.

The AEPF intends to progress by:

• developing joint strategies to halt the current negotiations seeking to implement FTAs between the EU and ASEAN, Korea and India.
• Deepening the process of constructing alternative proposals for a solidarity based, equitable and complementary regional integration based on people’s interests.

Structure of AEPF

The AEPF is being coordinated by an International Organising Committee (IOC). This committee consists of organisations who took the initiative to organise the Bangkok event. Since then members have been added, mainly from host-countries where the AEPF has been organised. The IOC works with a National Organising Committee in the host country, consisting of a wide variety of civil society groups and social movements. Direction and content of the bi-annual forum are decided by the IOC, NOC and other organisations in Asia and Europe interested to cooperate. The AEPF is being coordinated by the Institute for Popular Democracy in the Philippines and Monitoring Sustainability of GlobalisatioN (MSN) in Malaysia in Asia. In Europe, the Transnational Institute is the key anchor point.

In between the Forums the AEPF is active through circles. There are thematic and geographical circles. In particular in Asia countries like the Philippines and Indonesia have active AEPF circles.

Thematic circles are organised around:

• Water justice and public-public partnerships
• Free Trade Agreements between de EU and Asia
• Participatory democracy and local governance
• Alternative Regionalisms

¹ The European Commission is also a member of ASEM. ASEM started of with 15 EU member states, the Commission and 10 Asian countries (7 ASEAN, China, Korea and Japan). Since then all new EU member states have become ASEM member as well as Laos, Cambodia and Burma. In 2006 India, Pakistan and Mongolia were added.

Contacts and information:

Website AEPF 2008

The AEPF has developed an e-list on the EU-ASEAN FTA. If you want to receive news on the EU-ASEAN FTA campaign please get in touch with josephp[at]focusweb.org

IOC Contact points
- in Asia: Tina Ebro cgebro[at]ipd.org.ph, and Charles Santiago charlessantiago[at]gmail.com
- in Europe: pietje.vervest[at]tni.org