Alternative Convention EN
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Introduction : the convention process
The victory of the NO in France and in the Netherlands has aroused numerous expectations. Many of us wish to take part in the construction of tomorrow's Europe but disagree with the present, neo-liberal and anti-social Europe. The French and Dutch NO have also expressed the voice of this majority of European citizens who were never consulted.
The NO has awakened hope. Hope of an alternative. It has also highlighted the urgent need to describe what kind of other Europe we want. The ABC plan (June 2005) and the Convention of European ATTACs (Brussels, 17-18 December 2005) have initially been launched as first steps towards transcending the divisions and differences of standpoints, and as an attempt to gather the different components of ATTAC around an ambitious and common project for Europe, with respect for our diversities.
A long and on-going process
The participants of the Convention agreed that the definition of an alternative for Europe would be a long and on-going process. For this reason, they decided to meet again around December 2006, in order to organise the 2nd ATTAC convention for Europe.
However, there was also a general consensus that ATTAC should adopt a first list of common European priorities and objectives before the European Summit of June 2006 and the European Social Forum in Athens.
The convention process is now crossing an important milestone. All the ideas gathered during the 17–18 December meeting need to be analysed and debated by local ATTACs. In order to define a first common position for the Athens ESF, delegates from the different ATTACs of Europe will meet again ahead of the next Attac Europe seminar.
Other important milestones for the discussion are the alter-Ecofin summit initiated by Attac Austria (and the next one during the Finnish EU-presidency), local or regional forums launched around the European topics, summer universities, local and national discussions and contributions, and all other events that could be organised to discuss the various issues expressed in this document.
Remember that the Convention process is an open process, designed to gather all possible points of view and then try to arrive to one (or several) common synthesis, with the urge to overcome national points of view, towards a true European position for our movement.
The first ATTAC convention (Brussels 17-18 December 2005)
The Attac convention meeting in Brussels (17-18 December 2005) was an important step. It tried to gather as much different points of view as possible (“stock taking”). In order to prepare this meeting, each European ATTAC was invited to submit a contribution. At the beginning of the meeting, 10 contributions had been sent (Denmark, Finland, Flanders, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Walonia-Brussels). You'll find those in the ANNEX 1.
A discussion has been started on those points. It allowed to make a first assessment of convergences and divergences (“agreements and disagreements”) among the different participants.
Three main questions were covered by the ATTAC convention process :
WHICH EXPECTATIONS FROM THE CONVENTION PROCESS ?
WHICH INSTITUTIONS FOR A DEMOCRATIC EUROPE ?
TAKING THE OFFENSIVE ON SOCIAL EUROPE - WHAT EUROPE DO WE WANT ?
This document contains a synthesis of the current results of the “stock taking” process on each of those questions, and it should be the basis of debates at all levels (local, national, international). In NO way is this document currently binding for anybody. It is a tool for further discussions.
Methodology
In order to organise the Convention, we used following methodology.
Contributions of European Attac chapters
In order to prepare the convention of Decembre 200(, several ATTAC local organisations have prepared a contribution. Go to the contributions
