The Asia-Europe People’s Forum (AEPF) is an inter-regional network of civil society and social movements across Asia and Europe.

The purpose of the AEPF is to contribute to the realisation of a world based on the principles of peace, participatory democracy, social justice, human rights, food sovereignty, sustainability and people’s rights to self-determination. The AEPF is a space to link visions of, and struggles for, alternative futures.

The formation of the interregional network opens a new chapter in people to people relations among civil society organizations in Asia and Europe. Social actors from both regions recognise the growing significance of inter-governmental relations between Asia and Europe and the necessity to develop new political and organizational responses.

The AEPF has positioned itself as a space for political mobilization at the interregional level. The network seeks to develop alternatives to neo-liberal policies in both regions—in particular, the market-driven policies that are inimical to the aspirations for peace, development, and well-being of the peoples of Asia and Europe. Moreover, the collective and coordinated actions of the AEPF enable the peoples of both regions to influence policies on Asia-Europe relations at the national, regional, and inter-regional levels.

Since its emergence in 1996 the AEPF has evolved by reflecting upon, shaping strategies for and intervening in a range of issues of common concern to the peoples of Asia and Europe. In addition, the substantive agenda of individual meetings of the AEPF have been shaped by two other factors: (a) the political character of the host country and its constituent civil society organizations; and (b) the impact of significant events of immediate concern such as the aftermath of the Asian economic crisis, the heightening of conflict on the Korean peninsular and the consequences of the 11 September 2001 attacks.

ASEM 5 will be very much coloured by the aftermath of the failed Ministerial WTO meeting in Cancun, the War in Iraq. the situation in the Middle East and perhaps more in particular, the lack of democratic developments in Burma. ASEM leaders have wanted to extend the cooperation to new members in both regional blocs. The current deadlock is over Burma.

There has been a widely-held understanding that these specific issues-and Asia-Europe relations more generally-are firmly embedded within a broader political, economic, social and cultural trends. Here the salient issues have included economic globalisation. democratisation, peace and security, development policy, global co-ordination and governance, and so on. In other words, the AEPF will continue to focus on issues of specific concern for the peoples of Asia and Europe while, at the same time, developing an awareness of how these issues are understood. opened up. debated and resisted across a number of levels in the contemporary world order.

At the same time, the strategic purpose of the AEPF can be characterized as containing four major elements:

• To broaden the range of interaction between non-governmental organizations and social movements from Europe and Asia operating at national, regional and inter-regional levels of action in order to promote new forms of transnational solidarity.
• To open up regularized, systematic access to sites of governance and decision-making.
• To articulate an alternative policy agenda and to act as bearers of change on elite forms of governance embodied in the current A SEM process, including advancing areas such as social development, the environment, gender equality. human rights. and so on.
• To advance new sites of civic participation and democracy which have been weak in contemporary Asia-Europe relations.

AEFP 5 offers a major opportunity for advancing this strategic agenda as well as focusing on issues of both long-term and immediate concern for the people of Asia and Europe.

The long-term goal for the AEPF is to establish itself as the leading forum for advancing a critical understanding of Asia-Europe relations through research excellence. policy formulation and campaigning. It wants to create the kind of "critical mass" that sustains inter-regional connectivity, expertise and collaboration on long-term projects. As such the AEPF will develop a strategy to implement a number of interrelated priorities, and thus develop as a hub of inter-regional networks of genuine national and international significance leading to a "multilateralism from below".