ANOTHER SHADOWY MEETING REVEALED AS DAVOS
ENDS
January 24, 2004, Davos (Switzerland) --
One day before the end of the annual meeting
of the World Economic Forum (WEF) here,
Friends of the Earth International revealed
that at least one more shadowy meeting took
place, confirming the pattern of secrecy of
this gathering dominated by senior business
executives.
The world's leading grassroots
environmental group announced today that the
WEF [1] hosted a meeting of the so-called
Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) on
January 22, a business-led process that
provides input to governments of the European
Union and the United States [2], the world
two largest trading blocs.
Friends of the Earth formally asked
several times for any information on the
agenda and the participants list for this
meeting but nothing was disclosed by the
office of Niall FitzGerald, Chief Executive
of Unilever PLC who since December has held
one of the two TABD chairs (the other is held
by the Coca-Cola Company).
According to Corporate Europe Observatory,
conferences are attended by high-level
delegations from the European Commission and
the US government. Due to the far-reaching,
high-level political support it enjoys, the
industry body routinely succeeds in weakening
or postponing new consumer and environment
protection measures on both sides of the
Atlantic. The TABD also maintains significant
influence over EU and US policies within the
World Trade Organisation (WTO). Despite the
fact that the TABD is a private sector group
with no official status in the EU treaties,
the Commission refers to its involvement in
the TABD events as "negotiations". [3]
Trade ministers of 18 select members of
the WTO met here behind closed doors and in
parallel to the WEF on January 23 to try to
kick start international trade negotiations.
The so-called 'informal meeting' was intended
to revive trade talks collapsed in Cancun
(Mexico) in September 2003. At the "Public
Eye on Davos" [4], the alternative conference
to the World Economic Forum annual meeting,
environmental and development organisations
explained the dangers of such meetings.
Civil society representatives reiterated
their warning that no WTO agreement is still
better than a wrong agreement, especially an
agreement of the kind the richest trading
blocs and the business lobbies behind them
hope to reach. On January 19th Friends of the
Earth International Vice Chair Tony Juniper
requested a list of WEF participants and the
detailed agenda they would address. The
office of the WEF's senior managing director,
Jose Maria Figueres, said that the detailed
agenda and people attending was
confidential.
Craig Bennett of Friends of the Earth
said:
"The World Economic Forum is hiding behind
a screen of philanthropy, but in reality it
is operating behind closed doors to make it
even easier for big business to make massive
profits at the expense of people and the
environment."
In an effort to diffuse criticism about
its secrecy, the WEF started in 2003 its own
'Open Forum' that runs in parallel to its
traditional closed-door meetings. Because the
WEF and the 'Open Forum' are both called
'Forum', media reports and the public may
confuse them.
A report from Friends of the Earth
International released ahead of the WTO
Cancun meeting showed that big business,
rather than helping achieve the ideals set
out in the Millennium goals, is damaging the
environment and local communities. Friends of
the Earth is demanding international rules to
make big business accountable for its
behaviour [5].
For more information contact
Friends of the Earth in Davos:
Frederic Thoma + +32 486 40 18 95
(mobile)
Craig Bennett +44-(0) 7720147280
(mobile)
Eve Mitchell +44-(0) 7831640152 (mobile)
Notes to Editors:
[1] The World Economic Forum Annual
Meeting this year hosted more than 2,000
representatives from the top 1000 global
companies along with state leaders. It took
place in Davos from 21st - 25th January 2004.
See www.weforum.org for more information.
[2] Quote from the TABD, which does not
disclose much information on its one- page
website www.tabd.com
[3] More information at this page of the
corporate Europe observatory website:
http://www.corporateeurope.org/observer12/ombudsman.html
[4] The public Eye is a a
counter-conference, open to the public, which
explores alternative visions to the corporate
driven agenda at the WEF. It is organised by
Berne Declaration (coordination), Pro Natura
(Friends of the Earth Switzerland), Friends
of the Earth International (FoEI), Asociación
Latinoamericana de Organizaciones de
Promoción, Corporate Europe Observatory,
Focus on the Global South, International
South Group Network, Tebtebba Foundation,
Women in Development Europe, World
Development Movement. Website:
www.evb.ch/publiceye.htm
[5] See
http://www.foei.org/publications/pdfs/businessrules.pdf
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