Comitato economico e sociale europeo
The 12th meeting of the EU-Georgia Civil Society Platform (CSP) will be convened on 17 November 2023. During the meeting, a debate will focus on assessing the implementation of the priorities outlined by the European Commission and the state of play of the implementation of the EU-Georgia Association Agreement/DCFTA. The Platform will also discuss the digital transition in Georgia, as well as legal and practical issues of labour migration in Georgia and in the EU.
On 17 November 2023, the Permanent Group on Sustainable Food Systems (PG) and the Sustainable Development Observatory (SDO) of the EESC will hold a joint meeting on the theme "Sustainable food systems as drivers for the implementation of the SDGs" to bring together members of the two EESC bodies and representatives from the European Commission and other stakeholders from the agri-food chain.
The EU-Serbia Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) will held its 16th meeting on 17 November 2023 in Belgrade, Serbia. It is a platform established within the institutional framework of the EU‑Serbia Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), enabling representatives of both the EU and the Serbian civil society to monitor the country's accession negotiations, discuss issues of common interest and point out concerns to be tackled on the Serbian path towards the European Union.
The 2023 annual meeting of the presidents and secretaries-general of the national Economic and Social Councils (ESCs) of the European Union and the European Economic and Social Committee was held on 16-17 November 2023 in Madrid (Palacio de Fernán Núñez). The topic of the debates was "Organised civil society: an active guarantor of the twin transition and participatory democracy".
The EESC is convinced that islands, mountainous regions and sparsely populated areas face significant challenges and that there is a solid legal basis that obliges the EU to take action in order to tackle these challenges. In this context, the organised civil society has an important role to play and through this debate, the aim is to find the best practices and solutions so that these regions can perform better and recover from the multiple crises. Therefore the EESC- ECO section has decided to organise this public debate in the framework of the EESC own-intiative opinion on "Main challenges that EU islands, mountain and sparsely populated areas face.
The ECO Section of the EESC will organise a public debate with the title: "Gender inequality in access to financial markets. Causes, consequences and policy solutions" in order to present the views of different actors and discuss on the gender gaps in the access to funding and on investment.
The 14th meeting of the EU DAG under the EU-Canada CETA, and the first meeting of the new 2023-25 term, will take place on 27 October 2023. The DAG will elect a new chair, discuss the progress in implementing the Trade and Sustainable Development Chapter and exchange views on the EU-CETA DAG priorities for the new term.
The EESC hosted the 2nd Civil Society Forum on Trade and Sustainable Development : ' The other side of trade: a bottom-up approach to sustainable development' on 14 November 2023. Moving on from the fundamental question "Have we been listening?", the event examined Trade and Sustainable Development (TSD) from different angles with a common approach: inclusive, bottom-up and solution-oriented.
The Civil Society Organisations' Group of the European Economic and Social Committee and the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) are co-organising a symposium on analysing the current threat of citizenwashing, a term coined to describe a situation in which public authorities and politicians give the appearance of involving the public in decision-making without actually taking their views into account.
For in-person and online registration please follow this link. Deadline Friday (10 Nov)
The 8th meeting of the EU Domestic Advisory Group (DAG) under the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (FTA) took place on 10 November 2023.
