Building alliances: SOLIDAR Days returns for the 2025 edition
The SOLIDAR Days returned for another edition from 1-3 December in Brussels! The SOLIDAR Days is our annual initiative which bring together SOLIDAR’s members, partners and allies for a week of events, networking and discussion. It is a moment to come together, build alliances and exchange ideas.
This year, the SOLIDAR Days kicked off on Monday 1 December with a networking dinner for our members, where we also launched our strategy for the 2026-29 period and unveiled the new SOLIDAR+ (formerly SOLIDAR Foundation) logo.
On Tuesday, we headed to the European Parliament for three conferences organised in partnership with the S&D. First, we had the 2025 edition of the Social Europe Conference, ‘Housing for all: Delivering social rights to strengthen our democracies’ which launched this year’s Social Rights Monitor (SRM). This year’s discussion focused on the link between unmet social rights – specifically the right to housing – and threats to our democracies.
We then had the Global Citizenship Education (GCE) Conference, titled ‘Equal futures: Advancing global citizenship education for all learners.’ At the conference, we launched both a paper titled ‘Beyond Barriers: Strengthening global citizenship education for inclusive societies’ and a roadmap of recommendations which stems from SOLIDAR’s work on GCE over the past three years. The discussion focused on the potential of GCE to decrease systemic inequalities and the role that the EU can play in fostering this potential.
Finally, we held our annual event in solidarity with the Palestinian people. This year’s event titled ‘Standing with Palestine: Trade, occupation and the struggle for dignity’ focused on the link between trade and economic links with the occupied territories and their role is sustaining occupation. We were honoured to be joined by Dr Amal Jadou, Palestinian Ambassador to the EU, Belgium and Luxembourg, as well as MEPs Evin Incir, Cecilia Strada, Chloé Ridel, Annalisa Corrado and Tineke Strik.
On Wednesday 3 December, the attention turned to internal matters of SOLIDAR’s network. Members met to discuss and exchange on SOLIDAR’s activities for the coming year, and took part in a workshop on funding for civil society in the current context. In the afternoon, we presented a paper, ‘Fair working conditions in Europe: Closing the gap for all migrant workers.’ The paper focuses on the shortcomings in social and workers’ rights experienced by migrants workers in Europe, especially in light of the upcoming revision of the Action Plan of the European Pillar of Social Rights.
The SOLIDAR Days closed with our annual Silver Rose Awards, and this year it was a very special 25th anniversary edition! We were honoured to award two very deserving winners. Agnes Jongerius was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award for her outstanding contributions to forging alliances within the progressive movement and her achievements in advancing key policies for workers across Europe. La Via Campesina was presented with the Just Transition Award for their remarkable achievements in progressing a just transition globally, often in challenging contexts, and bringing local struggles to the international stage. Morgan Ody, General Coordinator of La Via Campesina, accepted the award on the organisation’s behalf. We were also very grateful to our member organisation Solsoc, who joined us with the JUST exhibition, a photo exhibition which highlights just transition practices being implemented by local communities globally. The evening was a night of celebration of how far we’ve come in the past 25 years as a movement, as well as a moment of reflection on the challenges we still currently face.
And with that, the 2025 edition of the SOLIDAR Days came to a close. We are very grateful to our members, partners and allies for joining us across the three days, as well as the speakers and experts who contributed to the various discussions. Once again, the SOLIDAR Days proved a crucial opportunity for all those within our movement to come together, to strengthen our alliances, and celebrate our achievements. We look forward to next year already!
