By the EESC Civil Society Organisations' Group

Academia, local civil society organisations, representatives of regional and national authorities and members of the EESC met at a conference in Dolni Vítkovice, a former industrial area for coal mining and steel production in Ostrava, Czechia in October 2022. The conference on Reinventing the Moravian-Silesian Region in search of a socially just transition was organised by the EESC's Civil Society Organisations' Group as part of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU and attended by Anna Hubáčková, Minister for the Environment of the Czech Republic, Vladimír Špidla, former European Commissioner and EESC President, Christa Schweng.

Opening the conference, Séamus Boland, President of the EESC's Civil Society Organisations' Group, stressed the urgent need for a just transition to climate neutral economies and for civil society actors to ensure that nobody was left behind. He said: "The European Green Deal and the EU digital transition are inter-dependent and central to the EU's strategy of geostrategic autonomy from Russia. But we need to scale down this big EU strategic vision to the local level. Because nothing will be achieved without getting on board local communities and civil society organisations. We must directly involve them in bottom-up processes, jointly developing creative and sustainable solutions for a sustainable future."

Mr Boland recognised the significant efforts made by the Moravian-Silesian region to transform itself into a sustainable and low-carbon region. He also emphasised the identity challenge stemming from the transformation of the steel heartland of the Czech Republic into a low carbon economy. The process would clearly entail a reinvention of the local identity.

One of the most important conclusions of this conference was that a socially just transition can only become reality by means of a resourceful toolkit of actions and measures: enhancing investment by guaranteeing continuous access to public and private funds; focusing on small projects, social services, infrastructure, innovation and research, agriculture, development and social cohesion; knowledge sharing across industries and sectors, and learning from best practices and positive examples. All these actions and measures should particularly be aimed at creating new job opportunities, a more skilled workforce, more integration and inclusiveness.

Civil society organisations must be directly involved in how changes occur in partnership, through an inclusive bottom-up approach, so as to ensure a participatory endeavor and, ultimately, a genuinely fair transition.

Read more on the EESC website and check out the full text of the recommendations and conclusions, photos, videos and presentations of all guest speakers on the event page. (jk/mr)