European Economic and Social Committee

All around me I read about, see and feel that Europeans are increasingly living in fear, humiliation and hopelessness. Humiliation and fear are feelings that people have always lived with, but rarely have they given up hope, which has now vanished from our mythical Pandora's box. Last Friday in Paris, we celebrated 50 years of the Council of Europe's Social Charter and, while acknowledging the achievements of the EU's Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers, we wondered what the next step might be. The seminar discussions left me with the impression that when everything appears lost amid the financial turmoil, people's social rights are all they have left. These rights serve to stabilise society in the same way that the motion of Earth's tectonic plates prevents the planet from imploding.

We recently kicked off the debate on a European Energy Community based on the ambitious policy proposal made by the think tank Notre Europe. Last week European Parliament president Jerzy Buzek, a committed ambassador of this proposal, came to present it to the EESC members in the TEN section concerned with energy. After listening to Jerzy Buzek I can only agree with him and say that we need more Europe and strong political leadership on energy issues too, and not only on the Euro crisis. The current situation is not sustainable: energy prices are too volatile; potential crises could dangerously impact energy supplies; coordination and transparency within the EU are insufficient; and the investments needed are so considerable that no company or government alone can pay for them.

About a thousand young volunteers brought a breath of fresh air to the EU institutions' headquarters during the second half of last week. They pumped in some fresh, young and optimistic European oxygen at this time when we're feeling almost suffocated by the Euro crisis. We don’t know exactly how much the 100 million volunteers in the EU contribute to the EU economies. In Sweden alone, volunteering reaches anything from 3 to 5 per cent of GDP. It should not replace the state's responsibilities, of course. The 2011 European Year of Volunteering is the perfect time to start building awareness and recognition about volunteering, and to start to measure values other than economic ones. The EYV 2011 could be the tipping point for the market recognition of social economy players.

This summer we called for nominations for the EESC 2011 Civil Society Prize. This year we want to reward civil society initiatives which serve EU values such as diversity, tolerance, solidarity and integration, by seeking to diminish and prevent the societal effects of xenophobia and xenophobic nationalism, which are on the rise in Europe. Politicians need to avoid making xenophobic, populist and also Euro-sceptic speeches and promises. Those affected by the crisis in particular may feel resentment towards politicians in general, towards a Europe they perceive as remote and demanding, and towards immigrants. Why this resurgence of populist nationalism and xenophobia? What do we need to counteract all this?