What does EU Cross Border Cooperation imply for EU countries and countries in Eastern Europe and North Africa? What is financialization and what impacts does it have in the context of energy infrastructure? How are these themes related to climate justice and democracy? And finally, how can people from different countries cooperate in order to set up cross border activism and promote ‘development’?
The Debt Observatory in Globalisation (ODG) offers a free online course on these topics for 40 participants from different countries. The course, ‘Energy for the EU: Challenging Cross Border Cooperation’, offers a critical analysis of the recent trend of financialization of energy infrastructure, and the generation of illegitimate debt. The course forms part of the ‘School on Challenges of Development’.
The course stimulates participants to critically evaluate how the EU, through its external politics -in the form of free trade agreements, energy security policies and the involvement of public banks-, promotes a development model that generates social, economic and environmental impacts. Case studies in Europe and neighbouring countries will be used to illustrate these impacts.
The course highlights some initiatives of activism undertaken in Spain and pays special attention to critical cartography as a tool for cross border activism. Students are encouraged to investigate case studies related to the topic, and possibilities for joint activist initiatives.
Participating in the course will allow you to:
- Build critical knowledge on the concepts: financialization of energy infrastructure and illegitimate debt
- Deepen your understanding of current policies and developments in the EU and its neighbouring countries in Eastern Europe and North Africa regarding energy infrastructure
- Understand the role of EU, development banks public institutions and other actors in infrastructural energy projects
- Analyse diverse visions on development and related challenges
- Get to know case studies of infrastructural projects and its impacts
- Get to know cases of activism that are challenging large energy infrastructure projects
- Understand how critical cartography can be used as a tool for activism
- Build solidarity with other activists from Europe and neighbouring countries concerned with the impact of large energy infrastructure projects in the region
- Learn new insights and local cases from experts and peer activists
- Have the possibility to jointly elaborate activist initiatives for cross border activism
Keywords: free online course, energy, infrastructure, EU, financialization, public-private partnerships, illegitimate debt, sustainability, transparency, inequality, environment, European investment banks, critical cartography, projects of common interests (PCI), development, peer learning, activism.
Practical: the course offers three modules during a period of four weeks; from Monday July 4th to Friday July 29th. Each module consists of a Webinar delivered by an ODG expert, studying literature and other materials, and assignments. This program takes place in a participatory online learning environment, and assignments include students’ participation and exchange in a discussion forum. After successful participation and a final assignment, ODG will hand out a certificate of successful participation.
Applying for the course?
The Debt Observatory in Globalisation welcomes students, activists, people working in NGOs and other interested people from EU countries, Eastern Europe (especially from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine), and North Africa (especially from Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria and Tunisia) to apply. A maximum amount of 40 participants will be selected to participate in the free online course. The basic requirements for participation are:
- Being available for at least 8 hours per week to dedicate to the online course
- Good Internet access
- Reasonable ICT and Internet skills
- Working knowledge of English language
To facilitate the selection procedure and create a diverse group, we ask interested people to fill in this application form before midnight June 24th.
Additionally, interested people are asked to send a short motivation letter, including ideas about how you could use the knowledge and skills you gain in the course for your work or activism (max half A4). You will be able to upload it when filling in the application form.
Thanks for your interest,
The ODG team
This course has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The content of this course is the sole responsibility of the Observatori del Deute en la Globalització and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union.