A lot has been happening in the world of Fair Trade Towns since the first Newsletter in April this year and I hope you enjoy this second edition. Also don’t forget to visit the new Campaign of the Season slot on this website here, the first of which highlights the new Fair Trade Way long distance walk launched in the UK during Fairtrade Fortnight 2011.

Bruce Crowther
Fairtrade Towns Advisor
Fairtrade Foundation

1. 1,000 Fair Trade Towns and counting

Following the 1,000 Fair Trade Town’s joint declarations across the world in June, at the time of writing there are 1014 Fair Trade Towns in 22 countries across all six major continents. International Fairtrade Cities now include; London, Paris, Rome, Madrid, Brussels, Copenhagen, Oslo, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Vancouver and Wellington in New Zealand.

Find out more about the 1,000 Fair Trade Towns celebrations here.

Read letters of support for the 1,000 Fair Trade Towns from Mr Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament, Ms Mercedes Bresso, President of the Committee of the Regions, and Mr Staffan Nilsson, President of the European Economic and Social Committee here.

Read the response to the ‘Make Trade Fair’ petition from Mr Ciolos, EU Commissioner for Agriculture here.

2. ‘Beyond 1,000 Fair Trade Towns’ – 5th International Fair Trade Towns Conference in Malmö, Sweden on 19– 20 November 2011

For 2011 the International Fair Trade Towns conference will explore how we move forward “Beyond 1,000 Fair Trade Towns”. Come to Malmö on 19-20 November to meet committed people from other Fair Trade Towns around the globe. Learn, discuss and get inspired!

On Friday evening there will be a get together and pre-registration before the conference starts at 9.30am on Saturday 19th November.
The conference will finish at 3pm on Sunday 20th November.
Attendance at the conference is free to Fair Trade Town representatives travelling from outside Sweden. Lunch is included as well as dinner on Saturday evening.

The conference will be hosted by Fairtrade Sweden together with the City of Malmö, the first Fairtrade City in Sweden.

Registration: Online at www.fairtrade.se or contact your national Fair Trade Towns coordinator.
Registration opens on 2nd of September and closes 8th of October.
For further details of the conference contact:
Linda Ålrud
linda.alrud@fairtrade.se
Emma Börjesson
emma.borjesson@malmo

3. Cross-border Fairtrade Towns

In January 2010 Hadrian’s Wall along the English – Scottish border became the first cross-border Fairtrade Zone with nine local authorities (including one in Scotland) declaring their support for Fairtrade. But it won’t be the last!

Since 2005 there has been a grassroots movement of people along the German, French and Luxembourg borders that have been working together to share common interests. When Saarbrücken became the first Fairtrade Town in Germany in 2009 they decided to direct their cooperation towards becoming a transnational Fairtrade Region. They hope to gain Fairtrade Region status in 2012 and there are presently two models being considered:

1.) Quattro Pole – A trinational network of four cities: Luxemburg, Metz, Saarbrücken and Trier.
Saarbrücken and Trier in Germany have already achieved Fairtrade Town status while Metz in France and Luxemburg are striving towards it. Once this is achieved they hope to get the Quattro Pole to sign an official common Charta.

2.) Euro district – A binational network between the Borough of Saarbrücken and the Northern Department of Moselle.
In December 2010 the Meirs Assembly took a unanimous deliberation for the Euro district to commit itself to Fairtrade. Since then a few local authorities on both sides, French and German are striving to meet the five goals.

4. Fair Trade Towns in Central Eastern Europe

September will see the declaration of the first Fair Trade Town in Central Eastern Europe when Litomerice will be nominated as the first Fair Trade Town in the Czech Republic with Vestin soon to follow.

Gdansk and Poznan in Poland are also running Fair Trade Town campaigns and Poznan hopes to gain status in 2012. The campaign in Hungary is still in the early stages but Miskolc is currently running a campaign. This is another example of cross-border collaboration as Germany’s Fairtrade City of Hannover is an EU project partner with Litomerice, Poznan and Miskolc. We wish them all every success!