Europski gospodarski i socijalni odbor
Nakon što je usvojio samoinicijativno mišljenje o pametnim otocima, Europski gospodarski i socijalni odbor odlučio je pokrenuti i projekt na tu temu. Projekt će započeti konferencijom Pametne politike za pametne otoke, koja će biti organizirana zajedno s mrežom INSULEUR i uz podršku Povjerenstva za otoke Konferencije rubnih pomorskih regija (CPMR) i Europske federacije malih otoka.
On 4 November in Luxemburg, the EESC and the ESC of Luxembourg will hold a joint conference on "Common social values and principles & social governance". The event's aim is to have key social deliberations endorsed by the Commission and the Luxemburg Presidency: the EESC opinion on "Principles for effective and reliable welfare provision systems", an academic contribution on "Common social values in the EU" and the ESO study "Socializing the European Semester? Economic Governance and Social Policy Coordination in Europe 2020".
In March 2014 the 1st meeting of the EU-Africa economic and social interest groups network took place in Brussels. Following negotiations with the EESC, this meeting was funded by the Commission's DG DEVCO with the main objective of introducing an 'organised civil society pillar' into the Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES). The network was kicked off just in time to offer input to the Africa-EU Summit of April 2014.
The EESC has an interest to keep this network alive in order to contribute and follow up into the JAES from the perspective of organised civil society. Politically the best timing for organising meetings of this network is ahead of relevant summits between EU and African heads of state and/or government.
The ex-post evaluation of the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Development (2007-2013) (FP7) was due to be completed by end-2015. Evaluations gathered evidence to assess how well a specific intervention performed and draw conclusions on whether the EU intervention continues to be justified or should be modified.
With a view to ensuring the transparency of the evaluation process and to allow for a wide range of views to be considered, the Commission launched an online public consultation, which ran from February to May 2015.
Further to the analysis of the responses to the public consultation, the European Commission and the European Economic and Social Committee organized an event to present the results of the FP7 public consultation and to provide a forum for a further exchange of views. This was be held at the EESC premises, in Brussels, on 27 October 2015
This thematic seminar on "the reindustrialisation of Europe: agriculture – food manufacturing, distribution and commerce " will take place in two location: Milan and Bergamo on the 26 and 27 October 2015 in cooperation with the Italian organizations Confcommercio, Confindustria and Coldiretti.
On the 26 October, the first session in Milan will focus on reindustrialisation in relation to international trade and on the 27 October, the second session in Bergamo will focus more on industrial and innovation aspects.
This seminar will also be an opportunity to discuss the Circular economy and new technologies, as well as novel and greening technologies in agriculture. Participants will include: representatives of the Government, the Chamber of Commerce, academics, business representatives as well as 40 Members of the Employers' Group.
The first European Microfinance Day "What if we could turn job seekers into job creators?", is organised on 19-20 October 2015 at the EESC's premises in Brussels in a n partnership of the EESC with the Microfinance Centre (MFC) and the European Microfinance Network (EMN). It aims to raise awareness of microfinance as a tool to fight social exclusion and unemployment in Europe. A multitude of workshops, debates, expositions, meetings, etc. will take place at local level all across the EU-28.
ECO Workshop "Partnership – the key to successful urban development" during the CoR OPEN DAYS 2015, moderated by Mr van Iersel, ECO president.
This workshop will look at the cases of Glasgow and Vilnius. The objective of the workshop is to examine the potential opportunities and challenges faced by the cities and how these are determined by their location.
The conference will focus on the employment of refugees and other beneficiaries of international protection. Having a job will ease social integration, diminish reliance on social benefits and increase the possibility to find decent housing. Employed refugees will contribute to the social security system and their increased spending on consumer goods will be beneficial to the economy as a whole. Over time, this can help European countries to address demographic decline, ageing populations and shortages on the labour market, which will benefit both the refugees' concerned and the host societies.
Following the publication of the EU Agenda on Migration and fully aware of the importance of the topic for Europe and its civil society, the EESC is preparing an opinion on the "EU Action Plan against migrants smuggling". In this framework, the EESC organised a public hearing to allow the rapporteur, Ms Brenda King and the member of the study group to gather knowledge from relevant stakeholders.
With the SOC Section's support, EAPN will present its assessment of the 2015 NRPs and debate with 150 stakeholders two key questions:
- What needs to be done to ensure that the European Semester delivers on its Europe 2020 commitments to reduce poverty and promote participation?
- How to help the EU move forward on a social, sustainable and democratic strategy that could give hope and restore faith in the EU?
Speakers: Commissioner Thyssen, Outi Slotboom (DG ECFIN), Raquel Lucas (Commissioner Dombrovskis Cabinet), Sergio Prieto (MEP) and Tom Dominique (SPC Chair).
