EESC President Luca Jahier sends letters of condolence and solidarity to Lebanon, addressing HE Mr Fadi Hajali, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary - Head of Mission (EU), Mission of the Lebanese Republic to the European Union and Mr Charles Arbid, President of the Economic and Social Council of Lebanon.

The new proposal presented last Friday by the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, ahead of the European Council of 16-17 July contains highly critical issues, even though it maintains the initial volume grants/loans of the Recovery fund.

On 25 May, Mr George Floyd, a 46-year-old US citizen, died of asphyxia during his arrest by an officer of the Minneapolis Police Department. As the shocking images of this brutal arrest of an African-American citizen spread across the world, a growing wave of protests in the USA and beyond shook people's conscience.

European civil society organisations must be equal partners in the post-COVID recovery journey for a sustainable future. Civil society organisations have been at the forefront of the response to the global COVID-19 health crisis, supporting the most vulnerable and ensuring that people's basic needs are met in a challenging reality – even at the risk of the health of their own employees and volunteers. We have seen ...

“World peace cannot be safeguarded without the making of creative efforts proportionate to the dangers which threaten it. The contribution which an organised and living Europe can bring to civilization is indispensable to the maintenance of peaceful relations."

Tomorrow's EU-Western Balkans Summit can only underline once and for all that the effective enlargement of the European Union and the promotion of its values in the countries of the region ensure security, enhance social and economic development, consolidate democracy and the rule of law in Europe.

The response to the COVID-19 crisis has had a negative impact on a number of fundamental rights. The unavoidable lockdowns have restricted our freedom of movement and cross-border travel. Freedom of association and assembly have been cut, so have privacy rights through data tracking systems. What has been put in place as a temporary measure cannot be instrumentalised to revert decades-long fights for freedoms and equality.  We must get out of this crisis with our democracies – and our European Union – intact.

For a continent with nearly 1.3 billion inhabitants, Africa has so far been relatively spared by the COVID-19 pandemic, with roughly 6000 cases – mostly in South Africa and Algeria – and 200 deaths at the time of writing. The worst is, alas, still to come.

In less than 15 days, the EU has taken ground-breaking decisions to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and after some initial hesitation it has proven that Member States can simply not do without a coherent, coordinated approach in front of a global pandemic.

Today's ECOFIN decision did not seem to fully respond to the magnitude of the challenge that the EU is facing.

Following the EESC declaration "COVID-19: Now, we are either a Union or we are nothing", adopted by the Bureau on March 17, 2020, President Luca Jahier has urged today all institutions, authorities, regulators, both at European or national level, to take urgent and decisive actions to contain and fight against the pandemic and address the risks o