This morning (10th October 2019) a group of Members of European Parliament (MEPs), members of civil society organisations and Fair Trade producer organisations and networks gathered in the Members Salon in the European Parliament for the annual Fair Trade breakfast.
On the morning of the 1st October, the Make ICT Fair consortium held a breakfast event at the European Parliament in Brussels attended by around thirty participants. The event was hosted by Austrian MEP Monika Vana of the Greens/EFA and Swedish MEP Abir Al-Sahlani of Renew Europe in the Members Salon of the Parliament.
The breakfast was organised to raise awareness of sustainability and human rights abuses in the supply chain of information communication technology (ICT) products, as well as facilitate the discussion on the role of MEPs in promoting EU policies on human rights, European development banks and public procurement. read more
A joint event in Brussels by the Fair Trade Advocacy Office and World Fair Trade Organization Europe gathered diverse representatives from social and environmental movements on the 6th June. Fair Trade enterprises, NGOs and CSOs from the environmental, social and solidarity, and green economy movements, policy makers and trade unionists debated and dissected the current economic model, and discussed the interconnection between social and environmental justice during panel discussions and interactive group sessions.
Together with the pan-European organisations involved in The Fair Times 2019 European elections campaign, the FTAO, IFOAM EU, CIDSE, RIPESS and ECOLISE extend congratulations to all candidates elected to the European Parliament for the 2019-2024 term.
The five civil society networks and their respective members across Europe have joined forces to deliver The Fair Times campaign, using their collective voice to call for a fair and sustainable European production and consumption agenda.
Call for proposals – Research on options for an ambitious and integrated EU strategy in support of fair and sustainable textile supply chains
In the context of increasing concern for both social and environmental impacts of textile production and consumption, there is an urgent need for better regulation of textile supply chains. Progress has been particularly slow at the European Union (EU) level, in spite of increasing pressure by inter alia the European Parliament.
The FTAO has joined other campaign groups, farming organisations, and think tanks to call on the next European Commission President to put an EU food policy in place.
The organisations involved represent the sectors of farming, fisheries, environment, animal welfare, health, consumers, development, social justice, climate, and forestry. In an open letter to the lead candidates for the presidency, we called for an EU food policy to be put in place, and a European Commission Vice-President to be made responsible for ensuring the transition to sustainable food systems.
Our Communications Assistant, Ffion Storer Jones sat down with Linda McAvan MEP ahead of World Fair Trade Day to talk about her work supporting Fair Trade over her 20 years as an MEP and how she encourages us all to take action in support of Fair Trade. read more
Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) frameworks are effective tools in promoting fairer and more sustainable supply chains . They also have the potential to steer companies to address human rights and environmental issues in a way that serves long term socio-economic development and contribute to the achievement of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Furthermore, it is important to ensure that the implementation of HRDD frameworks lead to real change in companies’ trading practices and have a positive impact on small farmers and workers. read more
A one-day academic conference on EU Competition Law & Sustainability will take place at Science Po in Paris on the 26th of June 2019.
In the context of a global system of production that is increasingly interconnected and exponentially exercising pressure on the planet and people’s lives, this conference is inspired by the desire to imagine a system of competition law (or beyond competition law) that is fully embedded in the double limit of the planetary boundaries and of social considerations, inspired by Kate Raworth’s ‘Doughnut Economics’ and elaborated by Tomaso Ferrando & Claudio Lombardi in ‘EU Competition Law and Sustainability in Food Systems: Addressing the Broken Links’.
The Fair Trade Advocacy Office (FTAO) yesterday launched its latest publication ‘From local to EU level: Scaling Up Fair Trade in Europe’ at the European Parliament. The report aims to showcase and promote Fair Trade initiatives led by Local Authorities and develop EU policy recommendations on how the next European Commission could further support such initiatives.