On 22 and 23 January, two days of workshops were held at the European Economic and Social Committee in Brussels as part of the EUROsociAL II programme. The event brought together specialists in online cooperation from the Economic and Social Councils of the Council for Economic and Social Development (CDES) of Brazil, the Economic and Social Council (CES) of Spain and the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC).
In the course of these two days, Eduardo Almeida, Project Manager for Brazil's CDES, was able to learn at first hand about the CESLINK network of European economic and social councils – coordinated by the EESC – and the online network of Economic and Social Councils of Spain and the Autonomous Communities – coordinated by the Spanish ESC: the areas covered included the setting‑up, structure, management and coordination of such bodies, their databases, the systemisation and dissemination of information, participation and virtual interaction among network members and practical experiences.
This initiative arose from the project to set up an online network for cooperation among the Economic and Social Councils of Latin America and the Caribbean, to promote cooperation between them, strengthen social dialogue and promote new forums for participation. The CDES of Brazil and the CDES of Rio Grande do Sul have been tasked, by all of the region's ESCs, to design the platform for this network and to get it up and running. EUROsociAL therefore supports this process of presenting best practices from the European experience, which could perhaps be applied to the future Latin American and Caribbean online network of Economic and Social Councils.