On 31 March, the President of the EESC, Georges Dassis, heading a 4-Member delegation, took part in the Fifth European Forum of Social Entrepreneurship in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The Forum provides an opportunity for social entrepreneurs to communicate directly with representatives of European and national institutions and to get more familiar with current policies for promoting the social economy. "Governments and public bodies have begun to recognise the importance of social entrepreneurship. Steps are being taken ...
The conference, organised by the CEPESS (Centre for economic and social policy studies) in partnership with the European Economic and Social Committee, took place at the Committee on 21 March 2016. The Committee president took part in the opening session.
New proposal to streamline EU maritime security in a time of dire need… Can it be implemented fast enough to protect borders and save lives?
The European Economic and Social Committee is backing moves by the European Commission to boost cooperation and information exchange between various EU agencies and national bodies currently carrying out coastguard functions. But it stresses that “time is of the essence in implementing the proposed measures”.
At its plenary session held on 16 and 17 March 2016 (meeting of 17 March 2016), the European Economic and Social Committee adopted this opinion by 200 votes to 3 with 11 abstentions.
On 16 March 2016, Mr Dassis had a meeting with Mr Bakradze, Georgian Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, who was accompanied by Mr Gogolashvili, the recently appointed Chairman of the Georgian National Platform within the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum. Mr Adamczyk, co-chair of the future EU-Georgia Civil Society Platform, also attended the meeting.
The situation is troubling. The global population is projected to reach a staggering 9.6 billion by 2050, according to the UN. But the global food production system is struggling to feed the current population of up to 7.5 billion, with output only marginally exceeding consumption.
On 11 March Georges Dassis, President of the European Economic and Social Committee, received the Head of the Mission of the Republic of Serbia to the European Union, H.E. Ambassador Duško Lopandić.
When I met the Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker on 4 February, I made it a point to tell him how concerned I was about the situation in the EU, and that I believed that if we wanted to save the European venture and its values of peace, decency, intelligence and generosity, we urgently needed to bring the EU closer to Europeans and show them, on a day to day basis, a reassuring, robust Union which was founded on solidarity, had good news and cared about them.
The Commission president assured me that I was not alone in this desire, and that the Commission was preparing a proposal for a European pillar of social rights which would be implemented in the euro area and which other Member States could join. Naturally, we discussed the possibility of consulting the Committee, which could provide strong support for such an initiative and make a key contribution to it.
