Illegal trade in natural resources: What role for Brussels?
This conference is being organised by the Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES). Its goals are to analyse the political and economic factors that enable illegally collected natural resources to be sold on the European market and to better understand the impact on the development, the environment, and the stability of exporting regions.
A comparison will be made of the main government, non-government and private sector initiatives intended to fight against the import of illegal resources and to promote European responses enabling an effective fight against this traffic.
Conference objectives
The conference is intended to meet the following objectives:
- Provide a global view of the issues at stake through different perspectives (environment, development, peace & security)
- Provide an opportunity for European policy-makers, researchers, NGOs, inter-governmental organisations and the private sector to exchange ideas on ways to improve the fight against illegal trade in natural resources and imports into the EU
- Promote concrete measures that can be taken by the EU to support the fight against corruption and criminal activity resulting from the illegal exploitation of natural resources
Conference agenda
Attendees will first provide an assessment of the problems created by the illegal trade in natural resources. The second step will be to achieve a better understanding of the political and economic mechanisms that enable these products to be sold as legal products on international markets. A press conference will be held in the morning (11h).
There will be two parallel sessions in the afternoon to compare the main government, non-government and private sector initiatives to fight against the import of illegal resources. Lastly, a panel will explore the measures that can be taken by the EU to fight effectively against this trafficking and whether or not a general legal mechanism can be implemented to address the problem.