Fair Trade housewarming at the European Parliament

The European Parliament Fair Trade Working Group, a cross-party group of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) working together for European Union (EU) policies in support of Fair Trade, has successfully held its annual Fair Trade Breakfast. The objectives were: (1) to welcome the new MEPs and provide the opportunity to the European Fair Trade movement to meet with their respective MEPs; (2) to inform the new MEPs about the policy priorities of the Fair Trade movement for the new legislative term; and (3) to invite the new MEPs to join the Fair Trade Working Group.
The breakfast brought together Fair Trade organisations from 15 EU countries, MEPs from all main political groups (EPP, S&D, Greens/EFA, GUE/NGL, ALDE), officials from the European Commission and the Permanent Representations to the European Union as well as other civil society representatives.

The event was hosted by MEP Linda McAvan, Chair of the Fair Trade Working Group and Chair of the Development Committee (DEVE), and served as an opportunity to discuss the need for an EU Strategy for Fair Trade, which would be a cross-policy strategy and imply a coordinated action between several directorates of the European Commission.

While enjoying a Fair Trade Breakfast, participants had the opportunity to listen to the addresses of MEPs Linda McAvan and Bernd Lange, Chair of the INTA committee, as well as Fair Trade movement representatives Nyagoy Nyong’o, Executive Director of Fairtrade Africa, and Giorgio Dal Fiume, President of the World Fair Trade Organisation – Europe. Sergi Corbalán, Executive Director of the Fair Trade Advocacy Office, concluded the addresses with an invitation for MEPs to join project teams of the Fair Trade Working Group which will be working on specific issues.

For more information on the Fair Trade Breakfast, read this article.

The event took place during the Fair Trade week in Belgium – an initiative of the Belgian Development Cooperation and the Vote for Fair Trade campaign which is funded by the European Union and includes Fair Trade organisations from around Europe to advocate together for Fair Trade.

The Belgian Development cooperation also produced this video (also available in Dutch and French) about the event.