AEPF is an interregional network of progressive civil society organizations across Asia and Europe. Since 1996, the AEPF has remained the only continuing network linking Asian and European NGOs and social movements. It has assumed the unique function of fostering people’s solidarity across the two regions and has become a vehicle for advancing the people’s voice within Asia-Europe relations.
Since its beginning, AEPF has provided a space for social actors in each region to:
- Strengthen network building at the national and regional levels in order to undertake cross-regional initiatives and campaigns;
- Analyse issues of common interest such as security, development and neo-liberal globalization and their impact on peoples in each region and develop and take forward visions and strategies for alternative futures for a more just, equal and inclusive Asia and Europe;
- Provide people’s organizations and networks with a channel for constructive engagement with the institutions and policies of ASEM-member countries.
In 1998, hundreds of people’s organizations and networks across Asia and Europe endorsed the “People’s Vision Towards a More Just, Equal and Sustainable World,” which was later revised and reaffirmed at the ASEM 2000 People’s Forum in Seoul. In December 2005, the AEPF Charter of Principles was adopted. At each People’s Forum since 2000 we have developed and then shared widely our Final Declaration, Our People’s Vision.
