Call for an alternative European summit meeting in Biarritz on 13 and 14 October 2000 Biarritz

Christine Pagnoulle

A number of citizens and associations have come together in Biarritz in order to develop a common platform and to organise an alternative meeting when European heads of state and prime ministers convene on 13 and 14 October.

This new collective includes:

AB, AC! Pays Basque, ATTAC Pays Basque, ATTAC 64, Coordination des Comités de soutien aux prisonniers Basques, Eraikizan, FSU 64, Haika, LAB, LCR Pays Basque, Les Verts Pays Basque, UL CGT Bayonne.

Call for an alternative European summit meeting in Biarritz on 13 and 14 October 2000

European heads of states and of governments convening in Nice have the institutional and the social issues on their agenda. The Biarritz summit meeting on 13 and 14 October is intended to prepare the debate in Nice. 

On the occasion of former similar meetings in Amsterdam, Cologne and Lisbon citizens converged to express their anger and opposition, for Europe is currently being built through unbridled free-trade policies that take no account of the population’s actual needs. Similarly mobilisation for the alternative summit meeting in Biarritz asserts that 

The world is not for sale, and neither is Europe.

We demand that Europe be built on genuinely social policies. 

Today Europe is being built on social deregulation, on a constant challenging of acquired rights, on privatisation of public services, and on market criteria superseding social expectations. 

The truly social Europe that we demand would 

- rule out unemployment, redundancies, and the precariousness engendered by flexibility;

- guarantee a genuine social protection and a decent income to all;

- develop public services that meet people’s elementary needs: health, education, housing, water and energy supply, transport.

We demand that Europe protect the environment

The Erika catastrophe, The European directive that cancel the moratorium on GMO farming, GM maize being imported from the United States and farmed in the south-west of France are as many pieces of evidence that Europe currently participates in the degradation of the environment.

We demand that Europe:

- show due suspicion towards GMO, food imports and the merchandising of living organisms;

- move away from a productivism which results in destroying the environment (transport, farming, power plants, etc.): environmental standards and measures to be taken in order to redefine and diversify the production of energy have to discussed in the open ; 

- develop its resources so as to break away from a traditional and essentially unequal development, with rural areas being deserted and towns overcrowded.

We demand that Europe stand for fundamental human rights both for individuals and for associations.

In our times of globalisation free circulation is guaranteed for everything, except for human beings. Europe does not respect the right of asylum. Many companies ignore trade union rights. In France parliamentary inquiries have revealed that living conditions in prisons are an insult to human dignity. In the Basque country in particular demonstrations for political prisoners have brought to light a policy of systematic removal of prisoners from the area where their relatives live.

We demand:

- the improvement of living conditions in prisons and an end to this removal policy;

- the regularisation of illegal immigrants (‘Without Papers’);

- the right to vote for immigrants;

- more rights for the trade unions;

- the implementation of policies against racism and sexism.

We demand a democratic Europe of the peoples.

All peoples in Europe have a right to develop their minority cultures and to have their languages officially recognised. 

European institutions are being discussed within the European Union which so far has paid little attention to expectations of peoples. 

We want Europe to serve its inhabitants. All peoples have a right to self-determination. Peoples, not only heads of governments must decide on what relations they wish to develop among themselves on the European stage. 

We demand that Europe feel committed to help people in poor countries.

On the surface of the globe today 200 individuals have as much as 2,5 billions of human beings; poverty is spreading not only in the South and in the East but also in rich countries. 

Every country has a right to choose its mode of development and expect international support. 

In order to fight inequalities we demand:

- the cancellation of external debts in Third World countries; 

- the implementation of the Tobin Tax and the suppression of tax havens;

- transparency and citizens’ control on world organisations such as WTO and IMF;

- the opening of the European Union to whatever country wants to join without any discrimination;

- free access to health and education.

The present platform has been backed by:

AC! National, APEIS, ATTAC 64, CDDHPB, C.E.S.P.R.I.M.E.R. Pays Basque, Corrent Revolucinari OCcitan, DAL Pays Basque, DAL National, ELB, Gauche Socialiste République Sociale, LCR, Les Marches Européennes, MNCP.

More information: http://www.local.attac.org/attac64/bayonne/