A dash of optimism for the summer

Dear readers,

We start this summer with far more good news than last year. By the end of July almost 70% of adults in the EU should have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. Travelling is becoming possible, albeit still complicated. And the launch of the NextGenerationEU fund is picking up speed.

July is traditionally the beginning of the new Presidency of the Council of the EU. This time the task goes to Slovenia and the EESC is looking forward to close cooperation throughout these six months. We will work on exploratory opinions requested by the Presidency, addressing topics such as adult learning, inclusive digitalisation and fair food chains. We also hope that the epidemiological situation will allow us to organise a number of in-person events in Slovenia to make the most of networking opportunities.

While we're on our marks for the upcoming summer break, we are still planning our activities for the autumn. One of our priorities is participating in the Conference on the Future of Europe. In September, we will start our "going local" activities in all EU Member States. Our members, in cooperation with national, regional and local civil society organisations, will organise a number of discussions. The aim is to listen to civil society at local level and to feed their input into a new narrative on Europe. We are eagerly anticipating these exchanges, as they will doubtless produce multiple original ideas.

Another priority for September will be monitoring the implementation of the NextGenerationEU fund – especially the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Our vast network of practitioners knowing the reality on the ground in all 27 Member States will play a key role here. We want to help make the launch of the fund even smoother by identifying bottlenecks and pointing out what works well and what could be enhanced.

Before all this happens, I would like to wish you all, dear readers, an excellent summer break, full of quality time with family and friends. While respecting existing restrictions, recharge your batteries and enjoy all the little pleasures that we're slowly regaining after months of severe pandemic reality.

Christa Schweng

EESC President