Social movements present the agenda of mobilization because of the lack of ecological and social ambition of the Spanish presidency of the EU Council
- On the occasion of the visit to Madrid of the College of Commissioners, a wide range of organizations express our discomfort with the program and priorities of the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council.
- Under the slogan “In the face of the Europe of capital, eco-social justice” we call on society to participate in the activities planned in thirteen cities.
In the midst of the current multidimensional crisis, especially accentuated by the climate and environmental emergency and the depletion of natural resources, with wars and in the face of the rise of the extreme right with its racist, misogynist and anti-LGTBIQ+ policies, the programme of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) does not provide an adequate response to the main challenges.
For this reason, different social movements in Spain see the need to mobilize and communicate our denunciations of the impacts of EU policies and our demands based on the principles of promoting peace, equality, democracy and solidarity.
Why are we mobilizing?
1. To encourage a diverse and broad social mobilisation in favour of a Europe of social justice and peace with the possibility of promoting a coordination of social movements at the national level and, hopefully, at the European level.
2. To generate a critical discourse and influence public debates in the run-up to the European elections, denouncing the warmongering, anti-democratic, unsustainable, heteropatriarchal, colonial and colonialist policies that are catalysts of growing social and gender inequalities.
3. To point out the EU’s lack of ambition to respond to the climate emergency, at a time of transition with important challenges such as the distribution of wealth, labour and time as well as the increasing environmental degradation, biodiversity loss and the depletion of energy and material resources – including some as precious as water.
4. To denounce the impacts of the “European Green Deal” and the associated interests of transnational capital that is imprinting a new cycle of economic growth that deepens unequal relations between regions – creating sacrifice zones – and neo-colonial with the Global South to ensure the supply of critical raw materials without which many European industries would not exist.
5. To influence European policies to be negotiated during the six months of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU in order to defend policies that show solidarity and are committed to human rights and the limits of the biosphere.
6. To warn against the rise of authoritarianism, fascism and xenophobia. The image created of a “Europe of human rights” is impossible to sustain in the face of the increase in military expenditure in the European Union; the deepening of inequalities and the growth of poverty, especially feminized poverty; the increase in the cost of living and the privatization of public services; the hardening of a border regime that entails systematic violations of the migrants‘ rights; as well as the advance of extreme right or ultra-conservative parties that are eliminating fundamental rights, as evidenced by the prohibition of the right to abortion, misogynist policies, attacks on the LGTBIQ+ population or the denial of gender-based violence.
Demands:
1. A just energy transition with responsible public financing.
2. A decolonial green reindustrialization that respects the planetary boundaries.
3. An accessible and sustainable mobility system based on public transport.
4. To stop Agriculture 4.0 and to advance food sovereignty.
5. No more deaths at the southern border, regulation NOW!
6. Eco–social and eco–feminist justice, shielding public services and social and green budgets, fair distribution of wealth.
7. Defend the youth and the transformation towards an eco–social education.
8. Decolonise the external relations of the European Union.
Actions in Barcelona
On September 21 and 22 in Barcelona, on the occasion of the informal meeting of transport ministers, Gas No Es Solución network , the Coordinadora Estatal por el Tren Público, Social y Sostenible, and organisations of the Alianza por el Clima have agreed to mobilize to denounce the energy and transport policies of the EU and the Spanish government that aggravate the climate emergency.
