In this Issue:

• Main decisions from the Board
• WFTO-Europe Fair Trade debate and FT Marathon
• Vote4FT: Mr Juncker, new president of the European Commission
• Fair Trade Retailers logo
• Job vacancy at EFTA and Global
• WFTO-Asia AGM & Conference
• Vote4FT: testimonial

 

And More..!

Agenda

– 9 August: Day of indigenous people

– 7 September: 154th Flanders Fair Trade Town celebration

– 16-29 September: UN General Assembly, New York

– 24-26 September: Ecoprocura conference, Gent

– 1-11 October: Belgian Fair Trade Week

– 7–8 October: Fair Trade Marathon (FTAO)

– 7 October: WFTO-Europe Fair Trade debate

– 7 October: World Day for Decent Work

– 17-19 October: WFTO-Asia Conference & AGM

-11-14 February: BIOFACH

 

Let us know about your events!

 

Main Articles

Main decisions from the board

The 1^st WFTO-Europe Board meeting with the new elected Directors: main decisions!

The 30^th of June the first meeting of the new elected Board of Directors took place, via Skype. Following the election held in the AGM, the 14^th of June, the Board is now composed by 6 Members – Marijke Visser, Sophie Tack and Giorgio Dal Fiume (re-elected for their second mandate), Emilie Durochat from Plate-forme Française pour le Commerce Equitable (the new Director elected in the AGM) and Tadeusz Makulski and Gabriella D’Amico.

During the meeting in June, the Board took several important decisions, showing its commitment to follow the main conclusions taken during the AGM in Elspeet as well as reconfirming its engagement towards the Members.

Please find below a recap of the main conclusions:

1. Legal mandate: Giorgio Dal Fiume was re-confirmed as President of the organisation and Tadeusz Makulsky as Secretary. Concerning the role of Treasurer, the Board decided not to take this decision immediately but to wait until October, when the eventual 7th Member will be co-opted.
2. Call for the 7^th Board member: as foreseen by the Bylaws a new call for the 7^th Director was launched the 3^rd of July. Please note that you have time until the 30^th of September to present your candidature. For further information regarding the application form and support letters, please access to our website in the members’ section or contact administration@wfto-europe.org.
3.    Letter to members about new FTAO governance and financial support: following one of the main conclusions of the Conference in Elspeet, the Board agreed on the text of the letter to be circulated to the members. The letter was sent the 4^th of July to all the European Members by the Coordinator and forwarded to all the members across the world by Global the 14^th of July. Please note that the deadline to show your interest in financially contributing to the FTAO is the 30^th of August. Please do not hesitate to write to coordination@wfto-europe.org if you want to know more about this issue.

For any further information regarding the main decisions and discussions within the Board of Directors, please also refer to the minutes of the meeting.

 

WFTO-Europe debate within the FT Marathon

During the Belgian Fair Trade Week (1^st to the 11^th of October 2014), WFTO-Europe will organise a debate where students and young people from Brussels together with Fair Trade national actors will be invited to discuss  the main challenges of Fair Trade and the way ahead. WFTO-Europe will organise this event in collaboration with Oxfam-en-Action, a group of young people engaged in Fair Trade, which benefits from a wide student network in Belgium. Other youth organisations and students from several universities will be invited to participate as well.

WFTO-Europe chose the students and young people as the target group due to their double roles in the society: as consumers and future Fair Trade ambassadors.

The main objectives of this debate are to deepen the knowledge on Fair Trade and to encourage people to be active and be Fair Trade promoters.

In order to do so, the debate will be divided in three different sessions. The first 30 minutes will be dedicated to a general presentation of the debate and the different national Fair Trade actors that will take part to it. Each of them will briefly introduce himself and his activity in his own country. They will also quickly introduce the working group they will lead during the second session, addressing questions raised by the students.

During this session, each FT actor will invite the students to deepen some specific topics in the respective discussion groups (at least 5). These topics will be previously identified through a consultation process amongst students and will be focused on the main challenges/criticisms of Fair Trade (how to promote FT in the current economic crisis in Europe, how to make trade rules and practices fairer, what is the impact of Fair Trade on producers,..). The FT actors will guide the students on the reflection and eventual elaboration of new ideas on how to face the issue. The discussions will be framed so as to identify solutions and, if possible, what Belgium-based young people could do. After twenty minutes, students will be asked to move to another group for a second round of discussion on a different topic.

The debate will end with a wrap up session where one person from each group (a student or the FT actor) will be invited to share insights or other results from the conversations had in the working group with the rest of the people.

Few weeks after the debate, WFTO-Europe will launch a survey to receive the feedback of the participants and to evaluate the impact of the event.

The WFTO-Europe will be part of the Fair Trade Advocacy Marathon organised in Brussels by the Fair Trade Advocacy Office the 7^th and 8^th of October. This marathon will gather a number of Fair Trade actors and European decision makers to different meetings and a Fair Trade breakfast on the 8th in the framework of the Vote4FT campaign.

The Marathon will start with the meeting of the EU Fair trade Advocacy network followed by a capacity building session and the WFTO-Europe debate with Belgium based young people.

The next day will start with a Fair Trade breakfast that aims at connecting MEPs and Permanent Representations to their national Fair Trade organisations. The marathon will end with bilateral meetings between Permanent Representations and Fair Trade advocacy network members.

 

Click here and here for higher resolution pictures of Mr Jean-Claude Juncker endorsing the Vote for Fair Trade Manifesto on 9 April 2014.

Following today’s election by the European Parliament of Mr Jean-Claude Juncker as new President of the European Commission, the Fair Trade movement congratulates Mr. Juncker for being the first President of the European Commission to have committted to support Fair Trade ahead of his appointment.

In his earlier position as Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Mr Juncker “enthusiastically” supported Fair Trade, as he told the Fair Trade movement in a video interview on 9 April 2014, ahead of the European elections. On this occasion, he also stated “we have to introduce this dimension, the dimension of Fair Trade into our trade policies and into part of our trade agreements with others in the world. Fair Trade is a real issue”.

Jean-Louis Zeien, President of the Board of Fairtrade Luxembourg (founded in 1992) stated: “Jean-Claude has been supporting Fair Trade for twenty years in Luxembourg, from the beginning of product labellisation. When he was Prime Minister, his administration was one of the first to purchase Fair Trade coffee. During a Fair Trade breakfast in May 2008, in the Château de Senningerberg with government of Luxembourg, he took position in favor of integrating Fair Trade in public procurement rules.”

Sergi Corbalán, Executive Director of the Fair Trade Advocacy Office, stated “We are thankful for the enthusiastic support that Mr Juncker gave to Fair Trade as Prime Minister of Luxembourg”.

The newly-elected Commission leader will be shortly drafting formal mandates for the various portfolios of the future Commissioners. The Fair Trade movement see this as an opportuniy for Mr Juncker to translate his support to Fair Trade by including the promotion of an enabling policy environment for Fair Trade across EU policies in the official mandate that the European Commission President will give to the future EU Trade Commissioner. By doing so, Mr. Juncker would help the development of a European Strategy for Fair Trade at the level of the European Union.

 “We call on Mr Juncker to pass on his enthusiasm for Fair Trade to the new team of Commissioners” concluded Corbalán. 

 Mr Juncker at a Fair Trade breakfast organised by Fairtrade Luxembourg on 9 May 2008 in Senningen, Luxembourg. Click here for a higher resolution picture.

A pdf version of this press release can be found here.

ENDS

Contact:

Sebastien Leclef | Project Coordinator

Tel: +32 (0) 2 543 19 24 | Fax: +32 (0) 2 543 44 44 | leclef@fairtrade-advocacy.org

Fair Trade Advocacy Office

Village Partenaire – bureau 1 | Rue Fernand Bernierstraat, 15 | 1060 – Brussels – Belgium www.fairtrade-advocacy.org/vote4ft-campaign

 

Fair Trade Retailers logo for AGICES & Weltladen-Dachverband

Following the approval of AGICES (Italy) and Weltladen Dachverband (Germany) compliance with the WFTO Fair Trade Retailers Standard, the WFTO Logo is now visible in Fair Trade shops across Germany and Italy.  This spring, AGICES (Italian Fair Trade General Assembly) and Weltladen-Dachverband (German Worldshop Association) started using their respective National Fair Trade Retailers Logos, both carrying the WFTO logo, to brand members’ shops that comply with the requirements.

Those requirements are set by the monitoring system of the National Retailer Network as approved by WFTO.

The whole Fair Trade movement is hoping that having a Fair Trade retailer monitoring system and WFTO logos around the world will help consumers identify which Fair Trade shops are reliable.

Last month, a ceremony was organised during Weltladen-Dachverband’s annual conference for their representatives to receive the first Retailer-Standard-Certificate with its national Fair Trade logo, from WFTO President Rudi Dalvai.

News from the Members and Regions

Job opportunities at EFTA and WFTO Global

WFTO-Europe’s member EFTA is currently looking for a Fairdata officer and person for a Fairdata upgrade project. For more information please contact efta@antenna.nl.

WFTO Global is also currently looking for a Finance and Administration officer. For more information click here.

 

WFTO-Asia 2014  AGM & Conference

WFTO’-AsiaA is  in the process of organizing in October its biennial Conference and AGM. It will take place from October 16th to 19th in Seoul, South Korea. This event will include an exhibition and a Fair on the 18th. For more information, please visit WFTO-Asia’s website.

News from the office

WFTO-Europe office says goodbye to Tommi Raivio and Constance Bouline and thanks both of them for the great job made in these months. The office welcomes two new interns, Hélène Feller from Belgium and Martina Spata from Italy.

 

News from the Board

The next board meeting will take place on the 1st of August 2014 via Skype.

 

Vote4FT: testimonials

Testimonial: Mallamma Yalawar, India

Southern producer, Mallamma Yalawar from India speaking to European decision makers.

“Fair Trade means sustainable development for artisans and to assure incomes and a beautiful and sustainable life”

 

FT-RELATED NEWS, PUBLICATIONS & OTHER TOOLS

• WTO launches “trade stories” selfie competition.
• European Commission to tackle unfair practices in the food supply chain.
• The Guardian reports on how fashion can create sustainable employment for marginalised women.
• 19-year-old Boyan Slat created a concept able to clean up the ocean.
• An international declaration on the rights of peasants is on its way, la Via Campesina.
• 10 things you need to know about sustainable agriculture listed by The Guardian.
• Children aged 10 legally authorised to work in Bolivia.
• A German NGO says that the planned Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the EU and the US will undermine global food security on Brussels Office Weblog.

This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of WFTO-Europe and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.