(29 May 2014) – The Scotsman today published an article on the need for a ‘new social contract to boost our ecology’, mentioning the AEIDL-initiated ECOLISE network several times.
Following Olivier De Schutter’s recent articles at the Francqui conference and in Le Monde, May East, the CEO of CIFAL Scotland, a United Nations Institute for Training and Research sustainability centre based in Edinburgh, pleads for a more supportive policy towards community-based action on climate change and sustainability.
This recent explosion of community-based initiatives, she writes, has also prompted the establishment of a new European network, ECOLISE, which aims to support exchange and co-operation between initiatives, and to promote a more supportive environment for the emergence of new initiatives in communities across Europe.
According to Ms East, there is certainly a divide between the two constituencies, living in mutual ignorance – grass roots social movements on one side and the Brussels-based decision makers on the other hand. Olivier De Schutter’s “EU’s Fifth Project” is proposing to bridge this gap, while ECOLISE is paving the way towards a structured engagement in order to bring about real change.