Barcelona: European Network for Debt and Development Conference

Our team recently attended the European Network for Debt and Development (Eurodad) conference held in Barcelona on the 28th and 29th of January. 

The conference was an essential forum for tax and debt justice organisations to coordinate on an international level.  Over two days we listened to and spoke with our colleagues from across the global south and north, sharing perspectives on climate finance, debt justice, aid/reparations, and the world-shaping effects of private finance and international financial institutions.

Our time with colleagues in Barcelona provided a collective opportunity to prepare for the UN Financing for Development (FFD4) Conference, which will be held in Seville in July of this year.

The FFD4 Conference, the first of its kind in over ten years, comes at a time when 3.3 billion people are living in countries that spend more on debt interest payments than on education or health, and 85% of people are living under austerity. Meanwhile, 2024 research showed us that countries are losing US$492 billion in tax a year to multinational corporations and wealthy individuals using tax havens to underpay tax.  All of this while climate finance needs are growing, rich countries are reneging on their climate finance responsibilities and in some cases slashing existing aid budgets  

The FFD4 Conference will afford a crucial moment to advance some of the reforms of the global financial system currently being proposed.

For example, calls are growing not to repeat the mistakes of debt crises of the past, but rather to prioritise structural reform by establishing a Sovereign Debt Workout Mechanism under the UN (More here on this proposal).  Meanwhile, the Africa Group has initiated a process for the establishment of a UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation. While this is being resisted by the EU and OECD countries, the majority of world governments have fully endorsed the process and FFD4 will be an important opportunity to build momentum. 

FJI will throw its weight behind resolutions that offer meaningful solidarity with those in the global south who find themselves at the sharpest edges of debt injustice, resource extraction, and climate turmoil. And the Barcelona Conference allowed us to strengthen our links to the relevant international networks.  We will do so while shining a light on economic and financial injustice at home where workers continue to bear the strains of the cost of living crisis and the slowing of inflationary surges hasn’t resulted in falling food or energy prices. These trends are exacerbated by an incendiary housing crisis that continues to tear through the fabric of social life for many communities on the island. Drawing these connections across people bearing the brunt of the economic crisis in the global north and south, connected by the same systemic problems, is where we see great potential for building solidarity.

In the spirit of solidarity between the global north and south, we raised the issue of the Central Bank of Ireland continuing to trade Israeli war bonds with our international colleagues. This is ongoing, despite the formal expressions of concern from the International Court of Justice that Israel is persecuting Palestinians through, ‘committing war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination with relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities’. 

We are appalled that the Central Bank continues to trade Israeli war bonds, which directly finance genocide. We have been campaigning and publicly stating that the Central Bank must cease immediately. We raised this grave issue with our colleagues in Barcelona. They shared our dismay and echoed our demand that the Central Bank cease financing genocide immediately.