AEBR contribution to the UN Copenhagen Climate Change Summit

The Association of European Border Regions has begun to tackle Climate Change as a discussion topic during its last General Assembly and Annual Conference on 5th – 7th November 2009 in Ghent (Euregio Scheldemond). Ms Caitriona Mullan (ICBAN, Ireland) drafted a discussion paper already distributed to AEBR members. You can order a copy of that document at info@aebr.eu

During the Ghent Conference it was also discussed to use this kind of topics to activate a more dynamic participation way for AEBR members, and to do more and better things together.

On the other hand, the Committee of Regions (CoR) has asked the regional associations to react to the UN Copenhagen Climate Change Conference (7th – 18th December 2009). On 16th December, a CoR activity is foreseen in which traditional contributions are expected, but we propose something much participative, cheap, and with some more impact.

- Proposal: The AEBR asks its members to record short messages in video (if you have a press department with recording capacities, you can use them, but domestic video recordings without aspiring too much are also welcomed) in order to produce clips to be uploaded in YouTube. A message with links to these video clips will be sent to all participants in the UN Copenhagen Climate Change Summit. A selection of clips will be presented in the CoR event in Copenhagen on 16th December.

Our members (and the visitors of this blog as well) can send their rough recordings, and we will mount the final clips. In some places, maybe there is someone very keen on taking videos that can be very helpful. As a background, it can be decided to do it:

- outdoors: nice location near the region/euroregion premises (recommended);
- indoors: maybe a good poster full of meaning as a background.

- The interviewed people could be: own colleagues (maybe also politicians) in the Region/Euroregion; and/or citizens passing by the camera in the street, park, etc. It is also recommended to use a tripod to fix the camera and get better images.

- These messages, no longer that one minute each, should answer the questions below, taking into account that the current crisis is a good chance to change behaviours, to change the way we get in touch with the earth and with others. The motto should be related to the growing world trend towards generosity (ethical banking, fair trade, NGOs, social networking, etc.), towards a vision of the world based on the fact that human beings come not before Nature. There is no way back, because it is not sustainable:

- Questions:

For people engaged in CBC:
- What could be the role of local/regional authorities to face climate change?
- How could CBC promote "cleaner", environmentally friendly, behaviours?

For the general public:
- What could you do to face climate change?
- Are you ready to change some of your habits (diet, fossil energy consumption, self-restraint) to contribute to a common goal?

- How to proceed? Whenever you have your video ready, you can upload it directly to YouTube (please mention “AEBR / European Border Regions Campaign to face Climate Change”), and linked it to your own website, but please do not forget to send it to us, preferably in AVI format (but also 3GP of MP4 formats are ok). As files can be very heavy, you can upload your file directly into our YouTube account: Please go to http://upload.youtube.com/my_videos_upload and then register using:
USERNAME: c.pandary@aebr.eu;
PASSWORD: climatechange

How do you see this? Do you feel like engaging yourself in this activity? Please send us your video. We will collect contributions until the last days before the 16th December. If you can only prepare this afterwards, do it anyway, as our campaign will not end just by Copenhagen.

Contribute to fight against Climate Change, and be active in your AEBR!

Iguazú - Iguaçu

La Triple Frontera:
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_frontera

San Martín de Tours

No soy religioso. Los que me conocéis lo sabéis bien. De hecho, agnóstico tirando a ateo. Pero la figura de los dos sanmartines más populares me han atraído siempre. San Martín de Porres (3 de noviembre), patrón del Perú, afroamericano, tenía el don de la ubicuidad. Y San Martín de Tours (11 de noviembre), obispo que dio la mitad de su capa a otro hombre que la necesitaba. Interesante, no le dio la capa entera, sólo la mitad.

Hoy, mi amiga Elena Itani, de Volyn (Ucrania), me ha mandado esta imagen del de Tours. Y al recibirla, me he acordado de otra persona que me lo trajo a colación. Vicente Ferrer, otro santo que no está en el santoral y que nos dejó recientemente, me dedicó en 2002 en Cáceres su biografía, escrita por el periodista barcelonés Alberto Oliveras. En la dedicatoria, escribía el father Ferrer: Martín, el Santo dio la mitad de su capa a un desgraciado sin camisa. Nos gustaría la mitad de esa capa. Pues eso.

Asamblea General y Conferencia Anual en Gante

Entre los días 4 y 6 de noviembre hemos celebrado nuestra Asamblea General y Conferencia Anual 2009 en Gante, siendo nuestra anfitriona la Euregio Scheldemond (Bélgica). Lambert van Nistelrooij nos dimitió con nocturnidad el pasado 15 de septiembre, pero ha venido a despedirse de todos los miembros. De hecho, en el último mes hemos colaborado en varias cosas y nos quedamos con un buen amigo en el Parlamento Europeo.

Ese es también el caso de otros MPEs. Pero hay que destacar que han venido a nuestra sesión inaugural el Comisario de Política Regional, Pavel Samecki, el Director General Dirk Ahner, de la DG Regio; Luc van den Brande, Presidente del Comité de las Regiones; Gerhard Stahl, Secretario General del CdR; y muchos otros ponentes. Además, la mayor parte de nuestros miembros han estado representados, habiéndose tomado decisiones vitales para el futuro de la Asociación, particularmente en relación con las finanzas y la estrategia organizativa.

Además, tenemos ya un candidato en firme para Presidente de la Asociación.