The title of the EU-LDC Network conference in April 2004 will be 'Multilateralism at Risk'.  It aims to capture the current erosion of the climate of international co-operation and the apparent inadequacy and ineffectiveness of the rules and instruments at the disposal of the international community to confront a new array of challenges posed by an increasingly interconnected world. This has become apparent in the current UN crisis instigated by the war in Iraq and the unilateralist politics of the Bush administration, in the inability of the international community to find a UN concerted approach to dealing with global security issues, and in the collapse of the WTO meeting in Cancun on the Doha development round. Other examples are the failure of many countries to adhere to multilateral agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol or the commitment to increase development aid to 0.7 percent of Gross National Income, and the apparent inability of the international community and its multilateral institutions to deliver against its Millennium Goals, which it formulated in 2000 and reconfirmed in 2002 in Monterrey and Johannesburg.

The sub-title of the conference, 'Beyond Globalisation', refers to the increasingly apparent need to harness the unbridled forces that power the globalisation process. The challenges are to build a more inclusive and equitable globalisation called for in the Millennium Declaration, to better take into account social and environmental issues so as to achieve a more sustainable globalisation process, to better understand the threats of our time to peace and security, and to develop an effective system of global, regional and national governance, which works towards the realisation of the Millennium Goals.

The aim of the conference is to clarify the main causes of the current crisis in multilateralism, and to explore the effects which the new emerging power relations in the world will have on international cooperation, to identify the main political options for overcoming this crisis, and to discuss the desirability and political feasibility of building a new system of multilateral partnership and governance which aims at peace, security and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The conference will deal with three dimensions of this issue - security, trade and aid - and will bring together politicians, negotiators, policy advisors, and policy researchers from academic and civil society organisations, from Europe, the Middle East, South and East Asia, South, East and West Africa, The Caribbean, Latin America and North America. In total we will invite some 35 participants to present papers and act as discussants. In addition up to 50 people may attend as observers. Each conference session will consist of three parts: speakers, discussants and round table debate.

• Session 1 - Frustrated multilateralism - an introduction
• Session 2 - Frustrated multilateralism - the consequences
• Session 3 - Multilateralism and global security - a developing country perspective
• Session 4 - Multilateralism and global security - an EU perspective
• Session 5 - Trade - a developing country perspective
• Session 6 - Trade - an EU perspective
• Session 7 - Multilateral aid? - a developing country perspective
• Session 8 - Multilateral aid? - an EU perspective
  

For more information, please contact: 
Ms. Mar Tuells 
T: +31 10 453 8703 
F: +31 10 452 3660 
E: Mar.Tuells@Ecorys.com 
EU-LDC Network Secretariat 
P.O. Box 4175
3006 AD Rotterdam 
The Netherlands