AEPF emerged in the mid-1990s from a common desire and need among people’s organizations and networks across Asia and Europe to open up new venues for dialogue, cooperation, and solidarity.
The first AEPF inter-regional conference was organized in 1996 on the occasion of the first Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) held in Bangkok. Since the People’s Forums have been held biennially as an Alternative Summit to the ASEM.
Succeeding People’s Forums were held in London (1998), Korea (2000), Denmark (2002), Vietnam (2004), Finland (2006), China (2008), Belgium (2010), Laos (2012), Italy (2014) and Mongolia (2016).
The AEPF network has expanded over the years and has mobilized new organizations and movements from the AEPF host countries.
From its beginnings, the 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;
- analyze issues of common interest such as security, development, and neo-liberal globalization and their implications for the peoples in each region so as to come up with visions and strategies
- for alternative futures; and
- provide people’s organizations and networks with a channel for 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, South Korea. In December 2005, the AEPF Charter of Principles was adopted.
