This meeting was an excellent opportunity for a timely update by DG Trade on the implementation of the Trade and Sustainable Development Chapter under the FTA, as well as for a constructive exchange with the Director of the ILO office in Hanoi on the labour situation in Vietnam and the state of play of the roadmap.
Additionally, Ambassador Vu Anh Quang, from the Vietnamese Mission to the EU, participated in an exchange with the EU Domestic Advisory Group (EU DAG) members to share his views on ongoing topics within the context of the EU Vietnam relations.
The members of the EU DAG, which is composed of representatives of employers' organisations, trade unions and various interest groups, also further discussed its work programme and prepared the upcoming joint meetings with its Vietnamese civil society counterparts.
On 28 May, nevertheless, after this EU DAG meeting and following the postponement of the joint EU-Vietnam meetings due to the fact that the Vietnam DAG had not been established yet, the members of the EU DAG issued a statement on the late cancellation of the first Trade and Sustainable Development Committee and the first Joint forum between European and Vietnamese civil society, which had been planned to take place in the first week of June 2021.
Activities of organised crime organisations like money laundering and the tapping of public funds have consequences for the economy, business and society. A crisis like the Covid-19 pandemic may be an opportunity for organised crime to spread their activity, gain power and even innovate to find new ways to pursue their objectives.
In the process of building a more sustainable and resilient economy after the economic shock caused by COVID-19, it is crucially important to redirect investment flows. When making investment decisions, we have to increasingly take due account of environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations, alongside the calculations on financial returns.
NAT/SDO online conference organized jointly with the German Council Presidency
Event type
Conference
Location
14:00 - 16:45
Brussels
Belgium
The conference will explore the role of European Civil Society in using digitalization in a way that it enables and drives sustainability to support the European Green Deal and the EU sustainable recovery.
The EESC is organizing together with CEDEFOP a Policy learning forum (PLF) on 5-6 November 2020. The event aims at bringing together governments, social partners and civil society to help each other in the definition and implementation of the Council recommendation ‘Upskilling pathways: new opportunities for adults’ adopted in December 2016. This year's PLF follows on successful similar events of 2018 and 2019 being part of a series of events aiming to create a platform for mutual learning on upskilling adults with low level of skills.
The annual Circular Economy Stakeholder Conference, jointly organised by the European Commission and the European Economic and Social Committee, is an opportunity for stakeholders to meet, nurture their networks, share ideas and learn about the new EU policy developments on circular economy. The 2020 edition will be digital with a focus on renewal as we emerge from the COVID pandemic.
The hybrid conference “United in development: Intergenerational and territorial justice” will gather panelists of the Open Eyes Economy Congress and EESC representatives. The sessions will be divided into three major topics:
An interactive exchange on initiatives for responsible business conduct in the EU
Event type
Conference
Location
Rue Belliard 99
Brussels
Belgium
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:
Firstly, to identify and share experiences in relation to national instruments and initiatives designed to foster responsible business conduct in international value chains, and to explore which initiatives could possibly be scaled up to EU-level.
Secondly, to higlight the importance of improved and sustained coherence between relevant internal and external EU policies - which is paramount to the effective implementation of initiatives on responsible business conduct, as the replication of a variety of initiatives might impact both the EU internal market (e.g. calling for guidance how tension with competition law can be avoided) and the EU’s external policies, including trade, development, and environmental policies.
Thirdly, to explore how these existing approaches can feed into and complement the work of the European Commission's Multistakeholder Platform on SDG implementation efforts across sectors, as announced in Next steps for a sustainable European future, November 2016.
Finally yet importantly, the concept of the conference dovetails with the idea to highlight the role of civil society and industry organisations in contributing to the achievement of the SDGs.
The conference is co-organised with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and the Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands (SER).
