Brussels, 1 April – Brussels-based
environment, development, farming and transparency campaign organisations today
denounce the EU’s continuing contribution to the financial crises and the
limited solutions it is advocating at the G20 with a theatre spectacle in front
of the European Council from 12.30-13.15.
Politicians and citizens will battle their way
out of the financial crisis, to the backdrop of a stock-exchange on stilts –
all part of “Financial Fools Day”, a global day of action on the eve of tomorrow's
G20 meeting in London.
Alex Wilks
from the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad) said:“The ostrich approach to
regulation – put your head in the sand and hope for the best – has been exposed
as a sham, as many protesters have said for years. European companies and
governments bear a big responsibility for the current crisis. Yet EU proposals
for the G20 offer little for ordinary citizens in Europe, and the pledges for
the world’s poorer regions to be announced tomorrow will be a mere drop in the
ocean compared to the dramatic impact of the crisis.”
Campaigners are concerned that European
governments are bailing out the banks responsible for the crisis without
demanding significant regulatory concessions in exchange. And European
governments are relying on the advice of controversial bankers, continuing to
promote further financial services liberalisation in trade negotiations, and
failing to regulate European-based hedge funds. Developing countries are being
hard hit by the financial and economic crisis, but are being given no
additional support by European governments.
Paul de
Clerck from Friends of the Earth Europe said:“We are witnessing not just a financial crisis, but a
global systemic crisis with environmental, social, economic and democratic
dimensions. Banks need to be held fully accountable for the impacts they have
on the environment, food prices, destruction of biodiversity, climate change.
To tackle this crisis we need a radical departure from the current economic and
social model”
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Contacts:
Alex Wilks,
Director of European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad)
+32 2 894 46 42 and + 32 4 985 494 82 (Belgian mobile),
awilks@eurodad.org
Paul de Clerck, Head of Economic
Justice Programme, Friends of the Earth Europe +32-494380959
(Belgian mobile)
paul@milieudefensie.nl
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