EPA Protokolle - November 2009 Paris

Notes from European Program Working Group meeting in Paris – 21.11.2009 20 people joined the meeting from; No-Vox, LDH,COBAS, ISF/Czechia, ACTIT, BEKSAV, Social Forum of Turkey, AEDH, CARITAS, ESF Activist News Agency, Greek Social Forum, Transform,Attac, Belgian Social Forum, FSU, Aitec/IPAM

Agenda

1. Program Process
2. Assembly of Assemblies
3. Thematic Spaces
4. Big Events \ Plenaries
5. A day or timeslot for Regional issues
6. OPENESF – Websites

Program Process:

French Commmittee's proposal to use networks and thematic groups to formulate the program together with the traditional way of getting proposals for activities was accepted with general concensus. It is important to note that that the French position is really not impeeding the groups outside of the networks to have their activities. But using networks/thematic groups to build the program on collective proposals. And starting with the Berlin EPA, different thematics groups (networks) will try to formulate their proposals on that theme.

Calendar of Program Process:

• 15th of December, Starting of Seminar Proposals
• 15th of March Starting of the Voulntary Merging
• 25th of April End of Voluntary Merging
• 11-12-13rd of May Program Working Group meeting in Istanbul – Finalization of the Program Proposal by European Program Working Group
• 14-15-16th of May Last EPA in Istanbul – Finalization Of the Program

It is important to finalize the program as early as possible in order to publiticize the ESF 2010. Each organization can propose at most 3 activities and each network can propose at most 5 activities. Social Forum of Turkey will declare the exact number of the rooms and their prices in the Berlin EPA.

Assembly of Assemblies:

On the last day of the Forum (Sunday) there will be first Thematic Assemblies and after that there will be an Assembly of Assemblies. In that case, there won't be a need to have a Social Movements Assembly. It will be a good idea to use existing and newly formed networks for Thematic Assemblies. But also some other groups can propose Thematic Assemblies. Proposals for Thematic Assemblies will be merged too.

Thematic Spaces:

As a place to meet with other activists who are working on the same issues and create a visibility to certain themes, Thematic Spaces are very important. Organizing Committee of Turkey will come to the Berlin EPA with a concrete proposal on how much places there are for Thematic Spaces and how much will be the cost for Thematic Spaces.

Big Events: Opening session will be a big event which will give the Forum visibility. And also there will be some concerts, cultural activities etc. But Social Forum of Turkey also proposed to have very limited numbers of plenaires in Istanbul ESF with notable speakers in order to boost the participation. There was an opposition to this proposal. Social Forum of Turkey will prepare a more concrete proposal about plenaries to Berlin EPA.

A day on Regional issues:

There was a proposal about a day on regional problems, one day before the ESF 2010. But since there will be World March of Women Assembly and March, one day before the ESF, we won''t be able to have a day before the ESF. Social Forum of Turkey will discuss this issue and if there is a need for a timeslot for regional issues, half of the First day can be used for this or some other time slot.

OPENESF:

Openesf is an important tool to collobaratively prepare the activities fo ESF 2010 and for following the work after the ESF. And right now it has a cost of around 400 Euros per month which need to be paid if we want to go on using this tool. It is up to the Social Forum of Turkey to decide if they want to use this tool or something else etc.