(Photo: Trevor Haldenby / Flickr)

This is the first of a series of newsletters we regularly send out to all members and activists of European Alternatives. Here you can find information on all ongoing activities from our local groups in London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, and Bologna, and some information on what’s coming up.

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European Alternatives was started with the ambition of bringing together people who want to create a better Europe for a better world. We are delighted that more and more people are bringing their energy, ideas and hard work to the organisation.

Campaign News

In the context of the parliamentary hearings of the nominations for the European Commission, European Alternatives started a campaign for greater powers to be given to the European Parliament.
Since the launch of the campaign, the institutional relations between the European Commission and Parliament have been adjusted, but not sufficiently in favour of democracy.
Read about the latest developments in the campaign for greater democracy in the EU.

New Office Space and Events in Paris

European Alternatives has found office space in Paris at Espace Macaq in the 17eme, and will be working together with this association on several activities.
Forthcoming in Paris is a general meeting of European Alternatives over the weekend of 27th/28th February, in preparation for Transeuropa festival and an event at Maison de l’europe on the role of Civil society in international relations on the 3rd March

Bologna Salons

The 14th January saw another highly successful event in the Salon Europa series in Bologna: the theme was transnational journalism, and a report and press review of the event can be read here.
The next in the series is on 18th February, on the theme of Perspectives on immigration. The full agenda is here
To participate in the Bologna group e-mail bologna@euroalter.com

Berlin group starts with film and debate

The Berlin European Alternatives Group organized an internal meeting on January 31 to watch the film Us Now (2009), directed by Ivo Gormley. The movie considers some examples of on-line platforms which can be used to analyse and tackle the wider issue of the relationship between ‘the power of mass collaboration, government and the internet’. The movie has been taken up by the Berlin group as a starting point for further discussion on the notions of participation, self-organization, transnational movements, control and representative democracy. The group is considering organising the first public salon in Berlin around these issues.

To participate in the Berlin group e-mail berlin@euroalter.com

London group launches citizenship series

The London group has been organising the ‘Refiguring Citizenship series’ at the Institut Francais.
Gilbert Achcar of SOAS launched the series in January with a controversial reading of national sovereignty.
Next up on February 18th is Engin Isin of the open University, who will speak about citizenship and orientalism, referring to a text of Max Weber.
The London group is also preparing a large conference on Transnational Political Parties for March 31st.

Contact: london@euroalter.com

Rome group launched and new Salons!

The Rome European Alternatives Group has been launched! It is meeting regularly to plan the first of a series of monthly salons. The next group meeting will be on Wednesday 10th February at the cafe’ of Libreria Bibli (tbc). The first salon will take place on February 23 and deal with the question of migration from the recent events in Rosarno to the proposals of a migrants’s strike. Information is here

For Rome contact Giuliano on g.battiston@euroalter.com

Website Changing

We believe that an innovative online portal is a fundamental tool to carry on our pan-European work and formulate a new transnational conception of political engagement.
For this reason we are again at work on changing the structure of our website www.euroalter.com to allow for greater user participation, and more mutimedia possibilities of photos, videos etc. Many changes have already taken place, and more will be coming in the near future. Thanks to Alberto for making this happen.

EA Community Page

All European Alternatives activists are invited to write for the community section of European Alternatives – we want this to become a place for debate and discussion.

We want to thank those of you who have written over the past few weeks, and we are happy to announce that a totally reworked Community Portal will become active within the next week!