QCEA study tour a ‘major success’
'In 2022, Shell, TotalEnergies, Eni and Repsol recorded almost €78 billion in profit up until September.'
Quaker Concern for European Affairs (QCEA) has said that its latest study tour ‘proved to be a major success with more than twenty participants from all over the world’.
The event took place from 14-17 November, when the ‘Europe at a Crossroads’ study tour included four days of workshops on EU militarisation, climate change and migration policies. During the sessions with QCEA partners, Friends discussed the future of asylum in the EU, whether the EU is still a climate pioneer and what it should do differently to honour its founding principles of peace. They also visited the European Parliament and Commission, watched a movie on the Colombian peace process, had a tour around the Quaker house and learnt more about chocolate from Kate McNally.
John Lampen, from Stourbridge Meeting who attended the tour, said in the Central England Quakers newsletter that, despite the many challenges, ‘we did hear that not all the news is bad. There is a strong community of concerned campaigning groups who work together. There have been many successful interventions leading to positive policy decisions, and change often occurs rapidly. There are many concerned MEPs, and staff members in the institutions who are aware and listening. More public pressure is needed, and greater awareness of how these three areas of concern interlock’.
According to QCEA’s latest ‘Around Europe’ newsletter, Tracey Martin (QCEA’s director), the staff team and executive committee have been working on a new strategy, to be presented next year. Meanwhile, the European Network Against Arms Trade (ENAAT), of which QCEA is part, launched a database on EU military and security funding. (https://climatemilitarism.org).
The newsletter also highlights the high profits of energy companies amid a worsening cost-of-living crisis, where ‘nearly three-quarters of European consumers are cutting back spending on everyday items’.
In 2022, Shell, TotalEnergies, Eni and Repsol recorded almost €78 billion in profit up until September. Meanwhile an investigation by Corporate Europe Observatory shows that ‘gas and oil lobbies have unmatched access to European leaders’.
Since February 2022, more than 100 meetings between the EU Commission and lobbyists took place, says QCEA. ‘That is one every other day… Moreover, the EU’s new Energy Platform Industry Advisory Group, aimed to help the continent get off Russian gas, is exclusively made up of major oil and gas corporations in Europe. The group does not include a single public interest, consumer or environmental organisation.’
