European Trade Justice Coalition

Challenging corporate power in trade policy across Europe since 2000. Formerly S2B

About Us

23 November 2014 About Us2024-07-01T16:17:57+00:00

The European Trade Justice Coalition is the network of more than 50 organisations from across Europe campaigning for trade that works for people and planet. We have been challenging the unsustainable trade agenda of the EU and European governments since 2000. We campaign for trade policy that works for the environment and climate, provides decent jobs, and supports health and wellbeing for all.

Our coalition made up of economic justice, development, environment, human rights, womens’ and farmers’ organisations, trade unions, social movements and research institutes. We include groups throughout Europe, both EU and non-EU. We were formed in 2000, in the wake of the ‘Battle of Seattle’ at the WTO. The original name was the Seattle to Brussels network (often shortened to S2B) –  bringing the spirit of resistance from the WTO into European trade policy.

We are committed to helping create a new, democratically accountable trading system that advances economic justice, social wellbeing, gender equity and ecological sustainability, and that provides decent jobs and necessary goods and services for all people. However at present European trade and investment policy promotes the interests and power of big business in the global economy. It locks in neoliberal policies of privatisation and deregulation, while imposing a straitjacket on the ability of policies to be created in the public interest and running counter to climate and sustainability ambitions. The result is often devastating for local economies, jobs and the environment – both in Europe and in partner countries, particularly in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Objectives and aims

The coalition’s political objectives are to:

  • Roll back the power and authority of the trade deals and trade rules used to implement the corporate driven trade and investment agenda in Europe (bilateral and regional trade agreements of the EU and European governments, EU internal trade-related policy, WTO, plurilateral initiatives and newly emerging forms of trade rules);
  • Expose and challenge the undemocratic nature of EU decision making on trade issues;
  • Promote an ecologically sustainable, socially just and democratically accountable system of trade;
  • Promote legally binding rules to ensure that corporations are held democratically accountable for their conduct with regard to their social, economic and environmental impacts.

The coalition aims to:

  • Coordinate campaign activities with broad participation which focus on activities where pan-European civil society activity is essential for challenging decisions taken at European Commission, Council and Parliament level and by European governments;
  • Ensure that the network’s activities are co-ordinated with those of other global and regional networks and reflect the concerns of groups in the Global South;
  • Work together in a transparent and democratic way.