European Economic and Social Committee

This week's European summit was able to take the opportunity to discuss the often postponed "other side" of the euro crisis - growth and the lack thereof. While there has been an intense focus on debt and the problems it is causing - and rightly so - there has been precious little chance to discuss the impact of the crisis on society.

There are many strands of that impact, but perhaps the most obvious is unemployment and particularly unemployment amongst young people.

The Durban-negotiations may end up with concrete measures to fight climate change, or maybe Roadmaps for individual countries, or with improvements of the Climate Fund - or with just diplomatic talk and no concrete results. The final results will only be known when we are on the plane, going back.

Biotechnology, or genetic modification, is a thorny issue. The debate is often emotional, which is regrettable, given that this politically sensitive subject merits a better quality of debate.

To improve its knowledge base and contribute to the ongoing debate, the EESC voted a specific opinion on GMOs in the EU, NAT/513; we have asked a few questions to the rapporteur, Mr Martin Siecker.

We hosted Nicolai Wammen representing the new Danish Presidency in our plenary session last week, just after Martin Schulz was elected as the new president of the European Parliament. Together they give quite a complementary picture and programme for the EU: we need to keep alive a political vision of a European Union which is democratic, modern and a source of human progress; and we need to nourish it in the short term with a bold, responsible and pragmatic policy programme. We cannot let the crisis take our citizens’ dreams and aspirations away from them. We look ahead and aim to make our children’s lives better than ours in a future Europe, just like our parents wanted, and managed, to do.