<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Nicole LEONARD</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:nicole.leonard@sciencespo.fr">nicole.leonard@sciencespo.fr</a>></span><br>Date: Thu, Nov 3, 2016 at 11:13 PM<br>Subject: Summary note on ECA and the First Meeting in Brussels<br>To: <a href="mailto:commonswatch@lists.p2pfoundation.net">commonswatch@lists.p2pfoundation.net</a><br><br><br><div style="word-wrap:break-word">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="line-height:150%">Summary note on European Commons Assembly</span><span style="line-height:18px">’s </span><span style="line-height:150%">First meeting in Brussels, November 15 to 17
2016</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%">There are now less than two weeks
to go until the first meeting of our commencing European Commons Assembly
process! Since there have been many people getting involved over
the past weeks and months, it’s good to share some words on the background and process until
now so that we have the same understanding heading into the event, even if not everyone can attend in person. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><b>Preamble to the initiative<u></u><u></u></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%">There was a preamble to our current
gathering under the ECA call, which is hosted on the website and open for
signatures (<a href="http://europeancommonsassembly.eu/" target="_blank"><span class="m_-8653511013545443505LienInternet">http://<wbr>europeancommonsassembly.eu/</span></a>). It was
drafted at a meeting called together on commons activism in Europe (then
entitled Commons Watch), which took place from 18-20 May 2016 at an organic farm in Villarceaux, some 40km outside
of Paris. The objective was then, as it continues to be today, to bring
together in a trans-local coalition those engaged with commons and processes of
commoning in different spheres. Among
other things, we want to imagine together future concrete collective and
collaborative actions and campaigns in Europe. Ultimately, the goal is to come
to a strong and flourishing bottom up European political civil society movement
for the commons, which is able to articulate the commons also as a new policy
paradigm. <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%">You can find documentation of the
Villarceaux meetings here: </span><a href="http://wiki.remixthecommons.org/index.php/CommonsWatch" style="line-height:150%" target="_blank"><span class="m_-8653511013545443505LienInternet">http://wiki.remixthecommons.<wbr>org/index.php/CommonsWatch</span></a><span style="line-height:150%">.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><b style="line-height:150%">The ECA assembly at the European Parliament</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%">In Villarceaux, we also discussed
an opportunity to convene the ECA’s first meeting in Brussels, with a session
at the European parliament to be organised in cooperation MEPS from the
Intergroup on Common Goods and Public Services.<span style="line-height:150%"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%">Since the Villarceaux meetings, a
lot has happened, including growing numbers of you on our commonswatch email
list where we have been introducing ourselves (<a href="http://wiki.remixthecommons.org/index.php/Commons_Watch/Bios" target="_blank"><span class="m_-8653511013545443505LienInternet">http://wiki.remixthecommons.<wbr>org/index.php/Commons_Watch/<wbr>Bios</span></a>),
in smaller groups working towards the Brussels meetings (including one on the
ECA Assembly of Nov. 17th which takes us beyond the EP assembly moment), and on
our Loomio and hackpad spaces, where we have among other things started to
draft policy proposals on the themes we are working on as practitioners and/or
researchers.<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%">Taking all this into account, our
ECA assembly at the EP on the 16th is a moment in our process where we want to
engage in a participatory meeting with MEPs, to point to the potential of the
Commons as a policy paradigm. We will identify together a few themes and issues
(as we only have a short time at the EP) that need to be addressed on an EU
level, and how MEPs can engage in this. At large there is a will to point to
the relevance of the ECA at the EP level, and to address possible cooperation
between the MEPs and the ECA beyond the assembly on the 16th.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%">And in the trans-local spirit, on the afternoon of Nov. 15 - before the Parliament session - activists
in Brussels are organizing gatherings and workshops to welcome those
traveling from around Europe so we can exchange and debate on our various
struggles for the commons.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><b>The ECA Assembly on the 17th in Brussels<u></u><u></u></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%">Then, on the 17th in the morning,
we take advantage of the commoners’ presence in Brussels to look into our ECA’s
future and work to continue to give shape to our ECA process. How do we see the
needs, objectives, priorities and structure of the ECA? How do we stand in
solidarity around our diverse struggles and build a trans-local movement for
the commons? How does the ECA relate to (already existing) local assemblies and
existing Solidarity economy processes? How will we develop (further) policy
proposals throughout our ECA? These are just some of the questions that we will
want to address – for sure there are many others.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%">Such is the process we are in for
together! Thank you for being a part of it.</p>
</div></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div>Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: <a href="http://commonstransition.org" target="_blank">http://commonstransition.org</a> </div><div><br></div>P2P Foundation: <a href="http://p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://p2pfoundation.net</a> - <a href="http://blog.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://blog.p2pfoundation.net</a> <br><br><a href="http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation" target="_blank"></a>Updates: <a href="http://twitter.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/mbauwens</a>; <a href="http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens</a><br><br>#82 on the (En)Rich list: <a href="http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/" target="_blank">http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/</a> <br></div></div></div></div>
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