The 1st and inaugural meeting of the EU-Georgia Civil Society Platform (CSP) was held on 16th June 2016 in Tbilisi and was co-chaired by Andrzej Adamczyk, member of the EESC, and Kakha Gogolashvili, chairman of the Georgian National Platform at the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum. The participants in the first CSP meeting adopted a joint declaration, assessing the state of play of the EU-Georgia Association Agreement's implementation and acknowledging the considerable progress achieved by Georgia since the beginning of the Association process. Nevertheless, they called ...
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This Friday 10 June, the President of the European Economic and Social Committee, Georges Dassis, will go to the Élysée Palace, where he will be received by the French President. Along with nine other signatories, he will promote the Appeal of 9 May for a European renaissance, and is counting on France to lead efforts to relaunch the European project.
Civil society’s voice will be heard when EU Ministers responsible for urban matters meet in Amsterdam on 30 May 2016 to adopt the new EU Urban Agenda.
"As a defender of workers’ rights, including their right to a safe mobility and to continuous information, I am pleased to see the emergence of a European project aimed at tracking pension rights across Europe. In my view, seeking a truly European solution instead of applying a pre-existing system on a European scale is a sensible choice," said the President of the European Economic and Social Committee George Dassis at a conference organised jointly by the TTYPE (Track and Trace Your Pension in Europe) Consortium and the EESC.
CIVIL SOCIETY DAYS 2016
Representatives from European civil society organisations and networks, members of the EESC and European institutions gathered in Brussels on 31 May and 1 June for the annual Civil Society Days, hosted by the EESC. The main focus of the discussions over the 2-day event was migration and the challenges and changes that this presents to our European society to make the most of it.
Georges Dassis, president of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), received his counterpart, Patrick Bernasconi, president of the French Economic, Social and Environmental Council (ESEC). Mr Bernasconi gave a speech entitled “The Economic and Social Councils and the expectations of European civil society” and took part in the discussions of EESC members on this issue of crucial importance for European citizens and those who represent their organisations at all levels.
The EESC calls for new EU-ACP partnership that puts civil society in the driving seat. During its Plenary session today, the EESC put forward recommendations on how EU trade, aid and development mechanisms should be reshaped to be more effective in dealing with current and future challenges in relations with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. These recommendations will influence the new framework that will replace the current Cotonou Partnership Agreement (CPA), signed by 79 ACP countries and the EU and due to expire in February 2020. Despite some ...
New forms of employment contracts and relationships– including zero hour contracts, mini-jobs and work via online intermediaries – have proliferated since the financial crisis. While innovation and creativity must be encouraged, new forms of employment relationships have also increased uncertainty for many workers and this has led to an increasingly unequal labour market.
As part of a wider programme of country visits to 11 EU countries and to Turkey, an EESC delegation undertook a three-day mission to Ankara and Izmir to meet authorities and civil society organisations active in the migration field from 9 to 11 March 2016. In its Turkey mission report, the EESC presents 13 concrete recommendations to address the current situation.
Improving the management of the EU's external border is no longer just an aim, it is an emergency, according to an EESC opinion adopted today. But this should not be done at the detriment of fundamental human rights, notably the right to asylum and the right to free movement in the EU.