Regional Integration: an opportunity to face the crises

>Live streaming, 21 July at 9.00-20.00 (Paraguay time)

Regional Integration: an opportunity to face the crises

>Program

Finding solutions to the crises (economic, energy, food and climate) is urgent, and today it is at the core of the agenda of both social movements and governments. For countries in the different regions, regional integration appears as a way to overcome the global economic crisis through the development of solidarity and dynamic intra-regional economic ties.

In this context, re-thinking regional integration as a solution to the crisis can give a powerful impulse to building an alternative development project in each region (Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe) that is more sustainable and equitable than the current development model which countries follow today.

However, the current regional spaces are contested arenas. It is crucial, therefore, that social movements and governments search and seek for common strategies.

The objective of this International Conference will be to advance the debate among governments, regional/international bodies, policy makers, parliamentarians and social movements from the following regions: Mercosur, Andean Community, ALBA, SADC, SAARC, ASEAN and EU about the possibilities to respond to these crises through regional alternatives and a model of regional integration that promotes a change in the development model of the regions.

The Conference is organised as a series of round tables for dialogue bringing together parliamentarians, governments and civil society representatives from Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe on the following topics:

• Systemic Crisis, impacts of the crisis on regional integration processes
• Regional responses to the crises
• Regional Integration: Re-thinking the development model. Complementarity versus competition. Integration and Asymmetries
• Development Model and regional Infrastructure
• Energy Crisis and Climate Change: the challenge to find regional solutions
• Production model and Food Sovereignty
• Finances and development model. New financial structures: Bank of the South, regional currencies
• Regional Peace, Democracy and Human Rights
• Regional Integration: challenges for the movements and the governments

Programme

21 JULY
09:00–09:30

Opening: Greeting from organisers
Enrique Daza, Executive Secretary, Hemispheric Social Alliance, Colombia
Brid Brennan, TNI/Peoples’ Agenda for Alternative Regionalisms, Netherlands
Guillermo Ortega, Base IS, Iniciativa Paraguaya por la Integración de los Pueblos, Paraguay
Héctor Lacognata, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Paraguay

09:30–11:30

Systemic Crisis, impacts of the crisis on regional integration processes

Victor Baez, Trade Union Confederation of the Americas, Brazil
Juan Gonzalez, MOSIP, Argentina
Walden Bello, Member of Parliament, Philippines
Tetteh Hormeku, TWN/ATN, Ghana
Moderation
Cecilia Olivet, TNI, Netherlands

11:30 - 13:30

Regional responses to the crises

Amenothep Zambrano, ALBA representative, Venezuela
Juan Castillo, Secretary for International Relations PIT-CNT, Uruguay
Demba Moussa Dembele, African Forum on Alternatives, Senegal
Joy Chavez, Focus on the Global South, Philippines
Frederic Viale, ATTAC France
Moderation
José Miguel Hernández, CTC Nacional/ CC-ASC, Cuba

13:30 - 15:00
Lunch

15:00 - 17:30

Regional Integration: Re-thinking the development model. Complementarity versus competition. Integration and Asymmetries

Jorge Lara Castro, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Paraguay
Oscar Laborde, Government Argentina
Tomas Palau, Base IS, Iniciativa Paraguaya por la Integración de los Pueblos, Paraguay
Graciela Rodriguez, REBRIP, Brazil
Dot Keet, SAPSN, South Africa
Charles Santiago, Member of Parliament, Malaysia
Moderation
Gonzalo Berrón, ASC/CSA, Brazil

17:30 - 18:00
Coffee break

18:00 - 20:00

Development Model and Infrastructure

Guilherme Carvalho, Rede Brasil sobre Instituições Financeiras Multilaterais, Brazil
Ricardo Miranda, Confederación Sindical Única de Trabajadores Campesinos de Bolivia (CSUTCB), Bolivia
Michelle Pressend, Trade Strategy Group, South Africa
Moderation

Ximana Centellas, Directora General de Gestión Pública, Viceministerio de Coordinación y Gestión Gubernamental, Bolivia

22 JULY
09:00 - 10:45

Energy Crisis and Climate Change: the challenge to find regional solutions

Government Venezuela
Walden Bello, Member of Parliament, Philippines
Pablo Bertinat, Cono Sur Sustentable, Argentina
Roberto Colman, Coordinadora Soberanía Energética, Paraguay
Tom Kucharz, Ecologistas en Accion, Spain
Moderation
Fernando Rojas, Decidamos, Iniciativa Paraguaya por la Integración de los Pueblos, Paraguay

10:45-11:00
Coffe Break

11:00-13:00

Production model and Food Sovereignty
Juan José Dominguez, Member of Parliament, MPP–FA, Uruguay
Rabindra Adhikari, Member of Parliament, Nepal
Indra Lubis, La Via Campesina, Indonesia
Lodwick Chizarura, SEATINI, Zimbabwe
Francisca Rodriguez, CONAMURI/CLOC, Chile

Moderation
Sebastián Valdomir, Redes Amigos de la Tierra, Uruguay

13:00 - 14:00
Lunch

14:00 – 16:00

Finances and development model: New financial structures: (Bank of the South, regional currencies, etc)

Pedro Paez, President of the Ecuadorian Presidential Technical Commission for the New Regional Financial Architecture and Bank of the South, Ecuador
Beverly Keene, Jubilee South, Argentina
Ivan Lukas, Glopolis, Czech Republic

Moderation
Veronique Sandoval, Espace Marx, France

16:00-17:00

Regional Peace, Democracy and Human Rights
Lee, Seung-Heon, Chief External Relations Department of the Korea Democratic Labor Party, South Korea
Camille Chalmers, Campaign for Demilitarisation of the Americas, Haiti
Meena Menon, Focus on the Global South, India
Thomas Wallgren, Coalition for comprehensive democracy - Vasudhaiva Kutumkakam, Finland
Pezo Mateo-Phiri, SAPSN, Zambia

Moderation
Ramon Corvalan, SERPAJ Paraguay/ Iniciativa Paraguaya por la integracion de los Pueblos, Paraguay

17:00 – 17:30
Coffee break

17:30 – 20:00

Regional Integration: challenges for the movements and the governments

Round Table:
Edgardo Lander, Universidad Central de Venezuela/TNI, Venezuela
Meena Menon, Focus on the Global South, India
Nalu Farias, World March of Women, Brazil
Brid Brennan, TNI, Netherlands
Tetteh Hormeku, TWN/ATN, Ghana
Chacho Alvarez, President Committee of Permanent Representatives of MERCOSUR, Argentina
Ana Cristina Betancourt Garcia, Ministerio de Autonomía, Bolivia
Gustavo Codas, Government Paraguay
Moderation
Héctor de la Cueva, RMALC, México

What is the Initiative People’s Agenda for Alternative Regionalisms?

The initiative People’s Agenda for Alternative Regionalisms, involves regional alliances such as Hemispheric Social Alliance (Latin America), Southern African People’s Solidarity Network- SAPSN (Southern Africa), Solidarity for Asian People’s Advocacy – SAPA (South East Asia), People’s SAARC (South Asia) as well as organisations and networks in Europe, including Transnational Institute (TNI), that struggle for “Another Europe”. These networks and the organisations part of them, share a strong commitment on the need to RECLAIM the regions, RECREATE the processes of regional integration and ADVANCE people-centered regional alternatives.

The People’s Agenda for Alternative Regionalisms is an effort to promote cross-fertilisation of experiences on regional alternatives among social movements and civil society organisations from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe and contribute to the understanding of alternative regional integration as a key strategy to struggle against neoliberal globalisation to broaden the base among key social actors for political debate and action around regional integration.

Specifically, it aims to build trans-regional processes to develop the concept of “people's integration”, articulate the development of new analyses and insights on key regional issues, expose the problems of neoliberal regional integration and the limits of the export-led integration model, share and develop joint tactics and strategies for critical engagement with regional integration processes as well as the development of people’s alternatives.

For more information visit: www.alternative-regionalisms.org

Co- Organisers:
Hemispheric Social Alliance (HSA), Iniciativa Paraguaya para la Integración de los Pueblos, People’s Agenda for Alternative Regionalisms (PAAR), Focus on the Global South and Transnational Institute (TNI)

In cooperation with
Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA), Southern African People’s Solidarity Network (SAPSN), People’s SAARC, Solidarity for Asian People's Advocacy (SAPA), TWN Africa, Trade Strategy Group, Jubilee South, REBRIP, Transform Europe, ATTAC France, Vasudhaiva Kutumkakam, Finland, Ecologistas en Acción, Spain

Supported by
Paraguayan Presidency Pro-tempore of Mercosur

This Conference was made possible with the contribution of Oxfam/Novib, Oxfam Internacional, Christian Aid and Action Aid