European Economic and Social Committee
The January 2020 plenary of the EESC hosted debates about the Croatian Presidency of the EU, the COP25 and the European Green Deal, and the European Citizens' Initiative 'End the Cage'. At the end of the plenary, a farewell ceremony was hosted for the leaving UK members and delegates after Brexit.
Castilla y León, in the northwestern part of the central Iberian Peninsula, is one of the most sparsely populated regions in Spain. It has also suffered decades of migration towards the urban centres in Madrid and the coast, exacerbated by industrial offshoring and relocation both within and towards outside the European Union. However, that is not the end of the story: workers, organised in trade unions, have managed to fight back, keeping their jobs (and the region) alive.
The second day of the October plenary began with a debate on "a cultural vision for Europe".
Following an invitation by Nicos Epistithiou on behalf of the Cypriot Workers' Group representatives in the European Economic and Social Committee, within the framework of further improvement of the relations between the EESC and the Trade Union Movement, Group II President Oliver Röpke made a 6-day visit in Cyprus from 12 to 18 September 2009.
Policy Brief on the topic of Common Minimum Standards for Unemployment Insurance, providing an overview of the insurance schemes in EU countries and policy recommendations for upwards convergence.
The EESC Workers' Group strongly condemns the Turkish government's decision to invade Syria and to attack Kurdish population. An aggressive military attack is taking place at the borders of our continent.
9 October 2019 – Helsinki – Extraordinary meeting of the Workers' Group
Social Europe, finally: it is essential and it is possible!
By Christophe Quarez, member of the European Economic and Social Committee
Only available in FR
Right wing populism and nationalism, while not a new phenomenon, has in the recent years taken hold in many countries, including several within the European Union; sometimes as opposition, sometimes as government. Often, the ideological mixture of welfare chauvinism and nationalism is intended to appeal to the working class, with different degrees of success.
Membership of a Trade Union does not always mean, like it used to, immunity to these ideas, as these parties have abandoned their explicit neoliberal policies (at least in public discourse) and have taken what traditionally were leftwing issues such as social justice or redistribution to appeal to what they perceive as the 'losers of globalisation'.
