European Economic and Social Committee
The round-table is organized by the EESC's Consultative Commission on Industrial Change (CCMI) in partnership with the European Commission as well as with relevant European – Euromines, Euracoal, IndustriAll Europe – and national organisations.
The aim of the conference was to obtain a better grasp of the role civil society has to play in energy security and the transition to renewable energy at both national and regional levels. The challenge is to channel civil society involvement and expertise towards creating more links, partnerships and dialogue between local, national and regional players.
The EESC Employers' Group is organising a seminar on "Strengthening European Growth and Competitiveness: Proactive Trade Agenda – NOW!" taking place on 26 October in Helsinki and jointly organized with the Confederation of Finnish Industries and the International Chamber of Commerce, ICC Finland.
Trade and Investment are hugely important for the EU: 1 in 7 EU jobs depend on exports. The EU cannot risk falling behind in the global race to build a wide and ambitious network of free trade agreements. The signing of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement (involving 12 countries and 40% of world GDP) is a timely reminder of this. This seminar, which will be attended by many of our Members together with Finnish employers and entrepreneurs, politicians and academics aims to examine how to best contribute positively to the debate as trade agreements (TTIP - TISA - CETA - EU-JAPAN) increasingly become a top political issue.
Since 1992, the LIFE programme (L'Instrument Financier pour l'Environnement) has been the main European funding source for the protection of nature, resource efficiency and awareness-raising actions around the environment. In 2017, the European Commission will issue a mid-term evaluation of the LIFE programme over the 2014-2020 period. One of the objectives is in particular to start discussing the first perspectives for LIFE after 2020. This evaluation will particularly look at the impact, effectiveness and relevance of the programme's investment, taking into account the new features introduced in 2014. The EESC, along with the European Committee of the Regions, are closely involved in this process: the EESC will contribute with an exploratory opinion.
During the meeting, the representatives of the European External Action Service (EEAS) will present information about the EU relations and cooperation with Colombia and Peru. The EU DAG Chair will inform the Group about the outcomes of the civil society meeting organized in Bogota on 6 October 2016 with a view of establishing the Colombian DAG. Moreover, the Commission representative will provide information about the Ecuador's accession to the Agreement, as well as about preparations for the next meeting with Colombia and Peru under the Trade and Sustainable Development Title planned for 7-8 December in Brussels. The Group will hold then an internal debate to choose topics for the meeting with Colombia and Peru and to organize cooperation with civil society in both countries
This hearing on the CAP post-2020 was organised jointly by the Agriculture and Forestry Committee of the Finnish Parliament and the NAT section of the EESC. The 2013 reform of the CAP is currently being implemented and the CAP simplification exercise is also underway. The EESC wants to be proactive in preparing for the next reform of the CAP which relates to the period after 2020. It was of utmost importance to make an in-depth analysis of the current CAP and the result of the previous reform.
The Euromed Summit brings together some 120 participants from a range of economic and social councils, or similar institutions, representatives of employers, trade unions, other economic and social interests groups and NGOs from countries which are members of the Union for the Mediterranean.
This year, the exchange will focus on the following topics:
• Promotion of legal migration
• Women participation in labour force and women's entrepreneurship
• Organised civil society and climate change in the view of the COP22
• The coordination of social protection systems
As on previous occasions, the meeting will conclude with the adoption of a final declaration.
The conference was a step in the process of shaping Europe's core network corridors. As a follow-up to successful Malmö conference (6 May 2015), it represented another concrete activity to engage with civil society to discuss and support implementation of the Corridors.
The event was organised by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) together with the Region of Lombardy and a group of Italian stakeholders, in close cooperation with the European Commission (DG MOVE).
520th Plenary Session, with the debate on Horizon 2020 on 20 Oct., at 10:00,
with Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation,
in conjunction with the adoption of opinion INT/792
Article 376 of the EU-Moldova Association Agreement foresees that each Party would establish a domestic advisory group (DAG) on sustainable development, which would advise on issues relating to the Chapter of trade and sustainable development. A joint meeting is held annually. The first meeting was held in July 2015.
