Following the signature of the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) on 17 July this year, the EU-Japan Follow-up Committee organised a mission to Japan (Tokyo and Kobe) from 13 to 15 November, with the aim to continue to strengthen cooperation and ties between the EESC and its main partners in Japan and to prepare for the establishment of Domestic Advisory Groups (DAGs) and the Joint Dialogue with the civil society in the framework of the Trade and Sustainable Development Chapter of the EU-Japan EPA.
Events
Pages
On the basis of the Cotonou agreement, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) is mandated to organise consultation sessions and meetings of ACP-EU economic and social interest groups in order to voice these actors' views on the ACP-EU partnership and foster cooperation between civil society organisations.
Within this framework, the EESC organises regional seminars every year in one of the ACP regions.
This year, the EESC is organising a regional seminar in Windhoek (Namibia) on 8-9 November 2018.
This event is organised in the context of the preparation of an own-initiative opinion on the topic of "Employment opportunities for economically inactive people". It focuses in particular on this category of people, who, contrary to unemployed, are less studied. However, they have a labour market potential, and specific active public policies need to be created for them. Speakers include representatives of the European Commission, Eurofound and organised civil society.
The purpose of the conference is to raise awareness, across the EU, on how multi-stakeholder actions can boost the achievement of the SDGs, to identify success factors, and to develop follow-up actions for upscaling these to EU-level.
The specific conference objectives are:
The 5th meeting of the EU Domestic Advisory Group under the EU-Ukraine DCFTA took place on 29 October 2018 in Brussels. Please click on the programme tab to consult the topics on the agenda.
The purpose of this public hearing was to take stock of the EU climate finance architecture, discuss bottlenecks in climate finance access for local actors and propose solutions on how to unlock more and better climate action by adopting collaborative approaches to climate finance.
On the 29th October, the Group on the Inclusion of the Roma will be looking at the Roma's current health situation and their access to healthcare. Issues such as discrimination in access to health care, differences in life expectancy between Roma and non-Roma, as well as poverty and its effects on the Roma's health situation will be discussed. The hearing will also look into the situation in women's and children's health, with a particular emphasis on forced sterilizations, pregnancy and infant mortality, as well as vaccination amongst children. It will also feature a discussion on the solutions offered by the state in the light of health issues brought about by poverty, as well as recommendations on the way forward.
Opportunities for SMEs emerging from digital revolution – this will be the focus of the Extraordinary Meeting of the Bureau of the Employers' Group that will take place in Vienna on 24 and 25 October 2018. Apart from bringing concrete examples of SMEs benefitting from digitalisation, the participants will elaborate on potential of eIDAS (electronic IDentification, Authentication and trust Services) for SMEs and show the perspective of non-EU country on digital revolution. The impact of digitalization on education and dual system will also be analysed.
The Civil Society Platform complements the political bodies existing within the framework of the EU-Moldova Association Agreement, and it allows civil society organisations from both sides to monitor the implementation process and prepare their recommendations to the relevant authorities both in the Republic of Moldova as well as in the European Union. At this fourth meeting, participants discussed Human rights and democratic institutions in Moldova.
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and Serbia held the 7th meeting of their Civil Society Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) in Belgrade. This civil society platform between the EESC and civil society in Serbia was established within the institutional framework of the EU-Serbia Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) in order to allow civil society organisations on both sides to monitor the country's accession negotiations. It is also a platform to discuss issues of common interest and to inform the public at large of the challenges ahead during the accession period. Besides the current state of play in EU-Serbia relations and the accession process, main topic of the 7th JCC meeting were: Decreasing of Inequality and Promotion of Equal Opportunities in Social Policy and Employment and Enabling civic space and overview of the civil society situation in Serbia. A common declaration of the JCC was issued after the meeting.