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Corporate Europe Observer - Issue 8
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Climate Justice Summit
In November 2000, in The Hague, during the COP-6 negotiations, CEO co-organised the first Climate Justice Summit, together with CorpWatch (USA), World Rainforest Movement (Uruguay), Environmental Rights Action (Nigeria), People & Planet (UK), Sustainable Energy and Economic Network (USA), Oilwatch International (Ecuador), and the Rising Tide Coalition (Netherlands). The Climate Justice Summit brought together representatives from indigenous peoples and other communities adversely affected by the fossil-fuel industry, activists from the environmental justice movement, and others, to address the key social and ecological issues not discussed in the official negotiations.

The two-day event included numerous panels and covering issues such as: Globalisation, Equity and False Promises; Beyond Fossil Fuels, Toward Climate Justice; Movements Against Fossil Fuel Industry and False Promises; Human Face of Climate Change; Just Transition; the Fallacy of the Nuclear 'Solution'; and Greenhouse Market Mania.

Third World Network's Chee Yoke Ling, and Owens Wiwa, brother of the murdered human rights activist, Ken Saro Wiwa made keynote speeches. The Summit was a tremendous success, giving a platform to groups from the South and affected communities in the North. It was an opportunity for people to air their views and direct experiences of the impacts of climate change and its proposed 'solutions', as well as being in stark contrast with the character of the official negotiations being held on the others side of town.

GATSWatch Website
Over the last few years, Corporate Europe Observatory has been regularly monitoring the activities of the European Services Forum (formerly European Services Network), a lobby group of the European services industry. The creation of this group was actively supported by the European Commission in order to get business input for the EU position in World Trade Organisation negotiations, launched in February 2000, on progressive liberalisation of trade in services.

The services industry is a large and diverse sector, ranging from banks, brokers and insurance firms to fast-food chains and water companies, so it has been able to present a formidable lobbying effort in the lead-up to this new round of GATS negotiations.

As a result, the "GATS2000" negotiations threaten to further diminish democratic decision-making in the face of global trade rules established and enforced by the WTO.

While the negotiations are gaining pace, public opposition, both in the North and the South, is mounting. A coalition of groups from all over the world recently issued a statement calling for a moratorium on further liberalisation of trade in services ("Stop the GATS Attack").

Corporate Europe Observatory and Transnational Institute - both signatories of the "Stop the GATS Attack" statement - have now launched the GATSwatch website. GATSwatch is intended as a resource tool for GATS campaigners, providing easy access to information on GATS critique, on the negotiating process and on the corporate push behind GATS.

You can find GATSwatch at <http://www.xs4all.nl/~ceo/gatswatch/>.

Help Support CEO
CEO is run on a shoestring budget, and largely through the voluntary efforts of a small group of people. Nonetheless, we still require some funds in order to continue our work in exposing the threats to democracy, equity, and the environment, posed by transnational corporations and their lobby groups.

As such, we are appealing to readers of the Corporate Europe Observer to make a donation to support our work. As a registered non-profit organisation in the Netherlands, (No. 33298822, Amsterdam) all donations are tax-deductible. Donations can be made direct to our bank account through bank transfer. We can also accept Eurocheques, though unfortunately we cannot cash bank cheques from outside the Netherlands.

Bank: Postbank Amsterdam
Swift Code: ING BNL 2A
Account no.: 7871040

Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) is a European-based research and campaign group targeting the threats to democracy, equity, social justice and the environment posed by the economic and political power of corporations and their lobby groups.

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Paulus Potterstraat 20 1071 DA Amsterdam Netherlands tel/fax: +31-20-6127023 e-mail: <ceo@xs4all.nl>