About the Alternative Regionalisms project

TNI supports efforts to achieve people-centred regional integration and a regulatory regime for transnational corporations based on socially and environmentally just principles. Much of this work is carried out through bi-regional networks and international alliances and coalitions, for instance the Seattle to Brussels (S2B) and Enlazando Alternativas networks, the Asia-Europe People’s Forum and Our World is not for Sale (OWINFS).

TNI’s Alternative Regionalisms Project looks to:

• Develop and share the best analysis of the impact of regional trade and investment agreements as well as European corporations’ activities on all sectors of society, and particularly economically marginalised sectors such as small-scale farmers and indigenous communities 
• Bring together social organisations in the North and South, via the web and also on the occasions of key international summits, to share experiences and develop joint strategies 
• Put forward regional-based people-centred policy alternatives that are socially just and ecologically sustainable, specifically in the areas of trade, water, food and agriculture. 
• Facilitate high-level debates and sharing of critiques and alternatives on European trade and investment policy with key policy makers in the European Union 
• Initiate a dialogue on China, and its relationship with the EU, Africa and other regions
• Support campaigns calling for radical changes in European Union trade and investment policies, such as calls for end to regional Free Trade Agreements

 “[The TNI debate] was refreshingly provocative and radical… Europe may be peering over the edge of an abyss but at least there are some thinkers and policy-makers searching for ways to drag us back.” (David Gow, European Business Editor, Guardian)

The programme works with key organisations and coalitions in each region and has spearheaded the development of bi-regional networks, such as Enlazando Alternativas (Europe-Latin America); the Asia-Europe Peoples Forum (AEPF), EU-FTA ASEAN campaign. It is also actively involved in a number of critical international alliances and coalitions, including the Seattle to Brussels Network and the Our World is Not For Sale network. Working together, TNI has helped develop trans-regional strategies on regional integration.