The Mediterranean Social Forum (FSmed) is the first interregional Social Forum, created between movements from Europe, Maghreb and Mediterranean Middle East. [1] FSmed was established in 2001. [1]
A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Historically, a merchant is anyone who is involved in business or trade. Merchants have operated for as long as industry, commerce, and trade have existed. In 16th-century Europe, two different terms for merchants emerged: meerseniers referred to local traders and koopman referred to merchants who operated on a global stage, importing and exporting goods over vast distances and offering added-value services such as credit and finance.
The United Nations Economic and Social Council (EcoSoc) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations, responsible for coordinating the economic and social fields of the organization, specifically in regards to the fifteen specialized agencies, the eight functional commissions, and the five regional commissions under its jurisdiction.
Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context.
The Civic Forum was a political movement in the Czech part of Czechoslovakia, established during the Velvet Revolution in 1989. The corresponding movement in Slovakia was called Public Against Violence.
Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou is a Greek politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2014, and served as First Vice-President of the European Parliament from 2007 to 2009. She is the current Regional Governor of the Ionian Islands.
Tobias Pflüger is a German politician of The Left serving as one of six deputy leaders of the party since 2014. From 2017 to 2021 he was a member of the Bundestag, and from 2004 to 2009 a member of the European Parliament.
The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is the UN's central coordinating body for matters relating to the concerns and rights of the world's indigenous peoples. There are more than 370 million indigenous people in some 70 countries worldwide.
The Mediterranean Dialogue, first launched in 1994, is a forum of cooperation between NATO and seven countries of the Mediterranean. Its stated aim is "to create good relations and better mutual understanding and confidence throughout the region, promoting regional security and stability and explaining NATO's policies and goals."
Marie Arena is a Belgian politician who has been serving as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2014. She is a member of the Socialist Party, part of the Party of European Socialists.
A social forum is an open meeting place for civil society organizations and individuals opposed to neoliberalism and what its participants regard as the domination of the world by capital and imperialism. The first social forum was the World Social Forum (WSF) held in January 2001 in Porto Alegre. It was designed as a counter forum to the World Economic Forum (WEF) held in Davos at the same time. While the WSF regards the WEF as a meeting of the political and economic elite of the world, the WSF gathers social forces and aims to promotes democratization and social justice.
The Socialist International (SI) is a political international or worldwide organisation of political parties which seek to establish democratic socialism, though it consists mostly of social-democratic political parties and labour organisations.
Aaron Farrugia is a Maltese Partit Laburista politician and a Member of Parliament. He previously served as Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects and Minister for the Environment, Climate Change & Planning in Prime Minister Robert Abela’s cabinet and served as Parliamentary Secretary for European Funds and Social Dialogue in former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s cabinet.
The European social model is a concept that emerged in the discussion of economic globalization and typically contrasts the degree of employment regulation and social protection in European countries to conditions in the United States. It is commonly cited in policy debates in the European Union, including by representatives of both labour unions and employers, to connote broadly "the conviction that economic progress and social progress are inseparable" and that "[c]ompetitiveness and solidarity have both been taken into account in building a successful Europe for the future".
The Union for the Mediterranean is an intergovernmental organization of 43 member states from Europe and the Mediterranean Basin: the 27 EU member states and 16 Mediterranean partner countries from North Africa, Western Asia and Southern Europe. It was founded on 13 July 2008 at the Paris Summit for the Mediterranean, with an aim of reinforcing the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (Euromed) that was set up in 1995 as the Barcelona Process. Its general secretariat is located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM) is an international organization established in 2005 by the national parliaments of the countries of the Euro-Mediterranean region. It is the legal successor of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in the Mediterranean (CSCM), launched in the early 1990s.
The World Social Forum is an annual meeting of civil society organizations, first held in Brazil, which offers a self-conscious effort to develop an alternative future through the championing of counter-hegemonic globalization.
Giuseppe Porcaro is a political geographer, a writer, and an expert in communications, International Relations and Politics of the European Union. Having served for two mandates as Secretary General of the European Youth Forum, he currently serves as Policy Advisor at the Policy Planning and Strategic Foresight Division of the European External Action Service. Previously, Head of Outreach, Governance, and Human Resources of Bruegel, the European economic think tank. He lives in Brussels and he holds both Italian and Belgian nationalities.
José Manuel Ferreira Fernandes is a Portuguese politician of the Social Democratic Party who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since the 2009 elections. Earlier in his career, he was Mayor of Vila Verde in northern Portugal (1997–2009).
Nezahat Baradari is a German physician and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2019.