Wednesday 23 April
The official launch of WDM's report went really well. The room was pretty full and there was a lot of interest. I think African countries currently involved in trade negotiations with the EU were pleased to see some concrete statistics that they can feed into their own negotiating position. As Gyekye Tanoh from Third World Network said, "The report from WDM ought to be a weapon in the arsenal to destroy free trade deals and a building block when we seek alternatives."
The head of the European Commission delegation attended although he confined his comments to economic partnership agreements and not the Global Europe agenda. Our event chairman Helmuth Markov who is the chair of the European Parliament’s trade committee agreed that the Global Europe strategy is pure and simply about market access for European companies.
Now that’s over, I'm back to lobbying official delegations, where we can track them down! We are still trying to confirm a meeting with the Slovenian delegation but hopefully will be meeting with the group of MEPs on Thursday.
Oh and in case you are worried that its all work and no play, there is a concert tonight with Femi Kuti and hopefully Youssou N'Dour too.
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