Full description: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has further boosted the expansion of fossil gas extraction as gas is now being marketed as the transition fuel for a green new deal. Pipeline and fracking projects formerly opposed with partial success by communities and movements are being revived for the sake of the “energy security” of imperial states. While Algeria, Italy and the Eastern Mediterranean are being turned into transit hubs for the EU’s gas supply, resistance movements in Italy, Argentina or Algeria are confronted with significant challenges such as the increasing securitization of public spaces and state repression. A significant amount of fossil fuel projects worldwide were stopped thanks to popular resistance. Yet anti-fracking movements in Argentina or Algeria and struggles against fossil gas pipelines in Italy or elsewhere are being criminalized, outmaneuvred or oppressed by governments and the industry. The majority of cases of killings or threats to human rights defenders worldwide relate to environmental cases, many of which involved in protests against mining or fossil fuels. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a renewed run on fossil gas extractivism is looming, forcing local and transnational resistance groups to coordinate actions, resistance and strategies of self-defense quickly. Our workshop wants to offer a space to challenge the “security” approach to energy transition, share experiences in relevant struggles as well as tools to resist criminalization to more effectively counter such projects today and in the future and learn from past defeats. This workshop will be in EN.

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Full description: EU border externalization has expanded across Africa, the Middle East, Asia and even Latin America. However, These policies first began to take shape nearly thirty years ago in a region today defined by EUrope as the "Western Balkans" the EU’s dangerous hinterland, and its most proximate security threat. The borders of the Balkans have long been influenced by colonial European powers, dating back to the Congress of Berlin in 1878 which saw the diplomatic division of the peninsula into nation-states. This, in turn, influenced the Congress that partitioned Africa and triggered the scramble for the continent. This historical pattern also extends to border externalization policies, where the region has served as a testing ground for the EU's border externalisation strategies, with lessons and practices subsequently exported to other places. Our workshop will focus on EU border externalisation in the Balkans, looking at the critical role played by non-state actors such as ICMPD, FRONTEX and IOM.  This workshop will be in EN.