USEFUL INFORMATION

FOR THE 4th EUROPEAN SOCIAL FORUM

1. VENUE

The 4^th European Social Forum will be held at the Basketball and Fencing Facilities, right next to the ex-West Airport at the area of Hellinikon. These facilities provide us with the following rooms:

·        Central room for Fencing 7,000 m² (which will be properly modified in order to provide us with 20 rooms of 300 people).

·        2 rooms of 1000 m²

·        5 rooms of 500 m²

·        7 rooms of 100-200 m²

·        25 rooms of 50-100 m²

·        35 rooms of about 50 m²

·        The central basketball court with capacity of 15,000 people.

Furthermore, in all the three floors of the Basketball facilities there are verandas and foyers 6-14m wide. The seminars of the 4^th ESF will take place in the above-mentioned space.

In the open-air space (50,000 m²) around the Basketball-Fencing facilities there are small courts, a part of the runway of the old airport and a hangar of about 5,000 m², where we plan to offer free hospitality to all those who wish to sleep in their sleeping-bags.

2. TRANSPORTATION

The Basketball and Fencing facilities are 13 km away from the center of Athens and they can be reached directly from the city center by bus and tramway in combination or by metro in combination with bus or tramway. We are currently negotiating with the Company of Public Transportation so as to issue a free travel card, as well as to have more frequent services during the night.

3. ACCOMMODATION-HOSPITALITY

 Apart from the free accommodation that will be offered in the venue to those –both foreigners and Greeks– who wish to sleep in sleeping-bags, we are going to provide free accommodation in houses for the Babels interpreters as well as for people with health problems and special needs. Moreover, we have negotiated with the Association of the Hotel-managers and we have obtained a considerable discount for those who will have a 4^th ESF card, and we plan to book hostels and pensions at rather low prices for accommodating the participants from the Eastern European countries, the Balkans, Turkey and Middle East. Finally, on March 15 2006 a list of hotels will be announced and the participants will have the opportunity to book a room through the Internet.

4. SOLIDARITY FUND

The Greek Organizing Committee can provide up to 100,000 € for the transfer and accommodation of delegations or individuals from Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Middle East and Northern Africa, as well as smaller delegations from Latin America and Asia. Since our budget is more limited than the budget of the organizers of the previous European Social Forums we make the following proposals: a) If people from the above-mentioned places, which happen to be up to1500 km away from Athens want to be supported by the Solidarity Fund, they should travel by bus or by train; b) it would be a good idea that associations of Greek-Cypriots, which will attend the ESF, cover the travel and accommodation expenses of the Turkish-Cypriots participants in the 4^th ESF. We also suggest that the travel and accommodation expenses of the immigrants and the unemployed from Western Europe be covered by the associations and trade-unions of the respective Western European countries; c) Big Western European trade-unions and NGOs that are financially robust should “sponsor” financially – that is cover the overall expenses - the trade-unions or other delegations from the Eastern Europe etc.

We will do everything in our power to prevent every comrade from not coming to the 4^th ESF due to financial reasons.

5. VISAS

As we have already stated in the Enlargement Group report from the European Preparatory Assembly of Vienna, we need to have – for the participants in need of a visa – the lists of names with all the relevant information well in advance so that we can prepare personal invitations or, when necessary, the name of the organization so that we are able to send a collective invitation. Furthermore, we have to know beforehand if there are delegations in need of applying for their visas well in advance (i.e. Turkey) and how long such a procedure will take or if there are delegations in need of funding from the Solidarity Fund in order to obtain permission to leave their country of origin. 

6. PREPARATION OF SEMINARS

The deadline for the submission of proposals is due on 20^th February. It could be extended one week at the most, since the European Preparatory Assembly –the last EPA before the ESF- will take place on 2^nd-5^th March. After the submission of proposals, the final elaboration for the preparation of seminars will begin, which will be concluded with the meeting of the Programme Working Group in Athens on 1^st-2^nd April. Most seminars will have simultaneous interpretation by the Babels network, and we will do our best to support most of the seminars with interpretation. The overall cost for the preparation of seminars will be 300 € for rooms whose capacity is for up to 500 people and 500 € for rooms whose capacity is for about 500-1000 people.

7. PARTICIPATION FEE

Registration for the 4^th ESF will cost 20 € for those people who wish to attend all four days or 5 € for attending one day; there will be a special price for the unemployed, immigrants and students. The cost of holding a stall is 100 € and every Western European association that will take part at the 4^th ESF will pay 200 € to the Solidarity Fund. The registration and payment procedure will be announced in detail before the Frankfurt EPA.

GREEK ORGANIZING COMMITTEE FOR THE 4^TH ESF