AEPF emerged in the mid 1990s from a common desire and need among people’s organisations and networks across Asia and Europe to open up new venues for dialogue, cooperation and solidarity. The first AEPF interregional conference was organised in 1996 on the occasion of the first Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) held in Bangkok. Since then People’s Forums have been held biennially as an Alternative Summit to the ASEM. ASEM is the official meeting between heads of state of the European Union and 16 Asian countries.¹  Succeeding People’s Forums were held in London (1998), Korea (2000), Denmark (2002), Vietnam (2004), and Finland (2006). The next ASEM will be held in 2008 in China, where the Seventh AEPF will also take place. The AEPF network has expanded over the years and has mobilised new organisations and movements from the AEPF host countries.

From its beginnings, the AEPF has provided a space for social actors in each region to:

• strengthen network building at the national and regional levels in order to undertake cross-regional initiatives and campaigns;
• analyse issues of common interest such as security, development, and neo-liberal globalisation and their implications for the peoples in each region so as to come up with visions and strategies for alternative futures; and
• provide people’s organizations and networks with a channel for critical engagement with the institutions and policies of ASEM member countries.

In 1998, hundreds of people’s organisations and networks across Asia and Europe endorsed the “People’s Vision Towards a More Just, Equal and Sustainable world”, which was later revised and reaffirmed at the ASEM 2000 People’s Forum in Seoul. In December 2005, the AEPF Charter of Principles was adopted.

 

A People’s Forum, which is an Alternative Summit to the ASEM, is held every other year. The biennial forums in the past years have given priority to issues under the themes:

• Participatory democracy and human rights
• Peace and security
• Social and economic rights
• Environmental justice

The People’s Forums, held in parallel to the official ASEM Summits, is neither the beginning nor the end of the network’s activities and agenda. These alternative forums that highlight ‘the people’ in Asia-Europe relations provide opportunities for the exploration of shared interests for common action, as well as the consolidation of the network’s endeavours. The AEPF also carries out campaigns directed at respective national governments and constituencies of AEPF member organizations, and oriented towards the auxiliary role played by regional, interregional, and global organisations.

Next steps

In Europe, AEPF aims to contribute to a critical reflection and communication of the future of the European project. The European Constitution triggered a crisis and the EU’s new strategy for a ‘Competitive Europe’ not only represents an attack on the model of a ‘Social Europe’ but also includes an aggressive pro-business agenda that promotes free trade agreements (FTAs) with regions in the South that have far-reaching implications for development in, among others, Southeast Asia, Korea, and India. In this light, the AEPF is endeavouring to:

• develop joint strategies to halt the current negotiations seeking to implement FTAs of the EU with ASEAN, Korea and India;
• deepen the process of constructing alternative proposals based on solidarity and an equitable and complementary regional integration embedded in people’s interests.