MANIFESTO NFI 2007 MANIFESTO FOR A NEW EUROPE - ΜΑΝΙΦΕΣΤΟ ΓΙ | Page 3

committed to social justice, solidarity, democracy and peace
:: INTRODUCTION
IN 1990, IFN PUBLISHED ITS FIRST MANIFESTO for an
open, ecological and social new Europe. This manifesto served
as our frame of reference, as we followed the process of Eu-
ropean unification and formulated our positions on all major
issues. Through its activities and as member of the G 10 (the
10 biggest European environmental organisations) our organi-
sation has been involved in shaping a Europe that complies to
the largest possible extent with Friends-of-Nature goals and
that is fashioned into an open, social, peaceful and ecological
whole in a spirit informed by responsibility vis-à-vis the popu-
lation at local and global level and vis-à-vis future generations.
The road to these set goals has been paved with hope and
resignation, wrong decisions and new perspectives, promising
approaches and faulty implementation, good decisions and
fruitless action.
As the 50th anniversary of the European Union is approach-
ing, it is time to draw a critical balance, to rethink political
concepts and to develop new perspectives. This should be
at the core of all the celebrations and festivities marking the
EU jubilee. The pressing need for reorientation is indicated by
the most recent IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climatic
Change) report as well as by its key message that only prompt
political action will prevent global disasters, and also by the
most recent calculations of the economic and ecological costs
of climate change. The Community policies pursued in the 20
years to come will be crucial to the survival of our planet. We
have crossed the social and ecological limits of growth and
it is high time to shape the future in line with the criteria for
sustainable development.
:: EUROPE TODAY
THE EUROPEAN UNION is a community of states historically
committed to values such as freedom, democracy, solidarity and
social justice. This is why we welcome its enlargement.
Rapid changes have been triggered by the introduction of
a common currency, by the free movement of capital, goods,
services and people within the EU zone, by closing its external
borders, by the ‘fight against terrorism’, by new armed conflicts
on its periphery and by positioning the EU as an economic and
political global player. These very changes call for a new ‘idea’
of Europe, for the repositioning of Europe within the global
context in the spirit of social justice, ecology, democracy and
human rights, in other words in the spirit of sustainability. It is
only in the global context that the transformation processes
of states, societies and cultures in Europe can be understood
and crafted through political action.
The spreading of capitalist business and life patterns and
the globe’s total economisation have shifted the main focus to
competition, economic growth and profit maximisation. Peo-
ple’s need for satisfying and life-supporting jobs, for leisure
time and social security – in short for affluence and a good
life are being neglected. Neoliberal economic policies threaten
affluence as well as the integration of European societies and
of the world by putting economic egoism before the common
good. As a result, the world is deeply divided into poor and
rich and ‘non-competitive’ people are being excluded. Neo-
liberal policies are co-responsible for this process, since they
have – also in the EU countries – discarded the quest for a
just society and for the common good in favour of supporting
global capitalisation.
The organisational structure of capitalist markets und pro-
duction systems spawns policies of ‘non-sustainability’. Use of
resources and of land, emissions, climate change and environ-
mental pollution, loss of biodiversity, diseases and job stress,
desolidarisation and atomisation as well as racism and/or dis-
crimination debase the quality of life in Europe.
:: GOALS
THE PRINCIPAL AIM pursued with this reorganisation is a
new social contract at EU level, which is informed by the prin-
ciples of sustainability.
:: SUSTAINABILITY
THE PRINCIPLE OF SUSTAINABILITY implies a redefinition
of economic success and the introduction of a radically new
concept of progress: In view of declining growth rates in most
European countries and in view of the rapid economic devel-
opment in Asia, notably in China and India, economic success
needs to be defined as and measured by prosperity for all, in-
cluding women, older people and migrants. Sustainable devel-
opment is anchored in the fundamental values of justice and
solidarity, which it enhances in terms of global responsibility
and which it extends in terms of the rights of future genera-
tions. Most of all, sustainability centres on participation and
on the greening of economy and society, and it is the counter
model to a purely economistic, neo-capitalist globalisation. We
are deeply convinced that a lasting worldwide development
informed by social and ecological principles is possible.
International Friends of Nature 3