Heerlen 7 ‘From Crisis to Sustainability’ – Reports.

Heerlen 7, Brussels 12-14 December 2008 – Reports:

1.Opening Debate – From Credit Crunch to Sustainable Future

Banking lobbyist Weyn: ‘Ethical funds operate in same risky system’

With the public faith in the conventional finance policies at a low and banks finally starting to talk about ethical standards, the panellists of the opening debate couldn’t help feeling some satisfaction about the credit crunch. But the battle for sustainability isn’t yet won, warned ethical banking lobbyist Luc Weyn (Flanders) and Green European candidate Philippe Lamberts (Walloon). A long list of financial rules for banks is needed. And their clients and the policy makers have to change too. ‘Get used to modest interest rates’, was Lamberts message to the first. ‘And put your money in simple savings accounts instead of stock exchange funds, even if those are green or ethical’, added Weyn, ‘because even those operate in the current gambling system.’ Lastly, decision makers ‘should stop seeing banking as a neutral activity and start to learn how its mechanisms work and can be controlled.

Read report by Marianne Saenen

2. Panel – A Green New Deal

Economist Kleinknecht: Left must address corporate governance, not clean up rights’ mess.

Anti-speculation taxes far higher than the good-old Tobin tax are needed to re-stabilise the financial system,said economist Alfred Kleinknecht and former Attac-leader Sven Giegold during the second debate on the financial crisis of the 7th annual Heerlen conference. But whereas Giegold, co-author of his parties’ crisis remedy ‘The Green New Deal’ proposed a range of measures to recreate the system, Kleinknecht suggested to leave that sort of reparation jobs to the right. The left, he said, should concentrate on changing one of the major causes of the instability: the way companies are run.

Read report by Michael Leibman

3. Cross Border Tour 2009 : Harbours, Memorials and a Zero Carbon Demand

Through this border crossing chain of events EGP supporters reinforce the common Green campaign message. Three promising plans were presented during our 7th annual Heerlen conference. They propose to replace competition of two of Europe’s biggest harbours by cooperation, will persuade the public of a need for a zero carbon future while traveling zero carbon, and promote the former Iron Curtain (from which the picture of this memorial was taken) as landmark for soft tourism. Useful lessons were drawn from previous Iron Curtain experiences and the 2004 Obama campaign.

Read report  by Greet Goverde & Peter Alberts

Better-moderated debates, gender balanced panels and a lot more participants are the main lessons drawn from the 7th annual Heerlen conference in Brussels, 12-14 December 2008. The Heerlen Group will most probably not organize the conference, because it is to be integrated in an EGP Supporters’ Network by the end of March. If the EGP and its member parties want this integration to be an improvement however, the participants of the last ‘independent’ Heerlen conference felt, they should put individual participation and -supportership a lot higher on their agenda’s.

Read report by Peter Alberts & Lin Tabak