Editorial by Conny Reuter, SOLIDAR Secretary General

Consultation – Communication – Confusion – Commitment!

13 March 2015

Last week European Civil Society Organisations participated in the Latvian Presidency’s NGO Forum and agreed on a consensual roadmap for civil dialogue at all levels. For more than 30 years European Civil Society has been active at the EU-level and has built up vertical coordination bodies in the different sectors: social, development, education, environment, human rights and others. Since the last European Convention there have been several attempts to unite these civil society coordination bodies in a single representative group. Unfortunately these attempts have suffered in the past from fears of internal competition within the NGO/CSO families, and above all from the heterogeneous approach and misunderstandings between communication and real dialogue from the EU-institutions.

Until now we have had a transparency register which was aimed at making the involvement of stakeholders more transparent, but this register does not clearly distinguish between those stakeholders acting in favour of a particular interest as lobbyists or in the general interest as an advocacy body. CSO’s will never be able to compete financially with business interests, but can have a stronger voice if united and if article 11 (EESC’s points on art. 11) of the TEU is finally put into practice, as stipulated back in the EESC opinion from 2012! This would not mean a greater administrative burden, but would contribute to a qualitative improvement in policy making and legislation.

We as CSO’s are often confronted with references to public European consultation processes such as the one on the Europe2020 strategy. Not only has the review been postponed without warning, but in general the summing up of these internet consultations never distinguishes between a contribution from a representative body (from either business, a union or civil society organisations) and individual contributions from unidentified citizens. There cannot be an all or nothing approach, it has to be all, and in particular the representative and transparent stakeholders!

Is this only a theoretical issue? Certainly not: the impact, whether ex-ante or ex-post, only makes sense when civil society is involved. And for the doubters, they may also take a closer look and identify those who have NGO status and those who are civil society organisations and are membership based.
Circulez – il n’y rien à voir? No! Circulate the information and recognise, at long last, our competence, contributions and willingness to contribute to improving policy making in the interests of the horizontal social clause. The unit to deal with civil dialogue in the Commission’s Secretariat General is an important step forward. Let’s go for qualitative instead of quantitative easing, when it comes to civil dialogue.

This Monday we will have a public event to celebrate ‘20 years of SOLIDAR in Brussels’. This is not a time for commemoration, but the time to set the agenda to reach our objective of serving the general interest: promoting social justice in Europe and worldwide!

Together for Social Europe

Social Affairs Forum – study visit to CSV in London

11 March 2015

On 9 and 10 March 2015, SOLIDAR members of the Social Affairs Forum representing 16 different organisations from 11 countries all across Europe visited our member organisation CSV, a UK volunteering and social action charity based in London.

We visited the Red Route Café, CSV’s social enterprise café in Hackney, London. The initiative to open this café came about as a result of the riots in 2011 that brought many young people in London and all across the UK out onto the streets and ended in violence and damage in many places. The riots showed that young people with no job, little or no education and no positive prospects for their personal future feel desperate and need to make their voice heard. Hackney was one of the “hot spots” during these riots; a borough with a high level of unemployment, crime, obesity and low educational attainment as well as the highest level of child poverty in the UK, while at the same time being one of the most expensive parts of London in terms of property. Additionally, the area hosts inhabitants with a broad variety of ethnic backgrounds, from all over Europe and Africa as well as Asia. Approximately 25% of the population is classed as black/African or Caribbean and nine different languages are spoken.
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Building Learning Societies

Education, the key to fighting discrimination and empowering women

13 March 2015

Europe has made progress towards equality between men and women, and access to quality education is open to both men and women to pursue the career of their choice. There are still many challenges however, regarding equal treatment on the job market, the gender pay gap and women’s participation in the public sphere on equal terms with men. SOLIDAR believes that education is the key tool to fight against discrimination and to empower women to act.

Last week on the eve of International Woman’s Day the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s’ Rights and Gender Equality together with the Committee on Culture and Education held an inter-parliamentary hearing on empowering woman and girls through education. As stated during the meeting education for girls should not be a luxury, a necessity but a fundamental right, and access to it should not be limited by any means. Unfortunately it is not always the case. In many places in the world girls face many obstacles to pursuing education, are much more likely to drop out from school, and later in their lives are expected to earn far less than their male counterparts. As research and evidence show, in the developing countries quality education is a transformative tool that has a high impact on the lives and health of the individual, and impacts entire communities. Both in the EU and in the developing countries we should all strive to invest in developing the skills, knowledge and potential of learners, and to enhance women’s political and social participation.
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Organising International Solidarity

Mobilising for Social Justice | Taste of freedom – Power to Women @ World Social Forum

11 March 2015

SOLIDAR together with the Global Progressive Forum (GPF), SOLIDAR Member Organisations, Trade Unions and NGOs from both Europe and the MENA region* will be involved in several roundtable debates at the World Social Forum (WSF) that will take place in Tunis from 24 to 27 March 2015. Lead by the Global Progressive Forum (GPF), one of the workshops will focus on women’s fight for freedom and social justice.

Last Sunday, 8 March, was dedicated to International Women’s Day to draw attention to women’s rights and women’s achievements and to call for more gender equality. Recent years have shown many women at the forefront of major citizens’ movements and revolutions, asking for change, justice and equality. Through demonstrations, gatherings, marches, rallies and campaigns, women have voiced and expressed their demands. Nevertheless, while women try to fight for their common cause, institutional and instrumental obstacles still keep them away from the frontlines, setting back the achievements they had won or hoped for.

In this framework, the workshop titled ‘A Progressive Approach to Women Rights’ will discuss the following;

• How can we revitalise women’s civil society and political movements be it cross-party, cross-generations, cross-sectoral, cross-religion and cross-social status?
• How we can overcome the hurdles in front of them, to find synergies and continue in a positive progressive way forward and ensure women’s economic, social and political empowerment as part of the fight for social justice?
• How can women’s rights movements, with new and young women activists/ feminists, address today’s issues in order for rights to be adopted and implemented and women’s role and situation be improved?
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