On the 7th of May the Diversity Europe Group of the EESC organised its Extraordinary Meeting in Bucharest. This high level conference took place at the Atrium of the National Library, and its topic was 'A Europe of Shared Values and Civil Society'.
Together with the other EU institutions in Brussels, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) opened its doors on Saturday 4 May in celebration of Europe Day. This year the Open Day was about choosing your future: the European elections on 23-26 May are your chance to have a say on who makes big decisions that affect your daily life. Pledge to vote and take responsibility for the future at thistimeimvoting.eu!
The event will focus on how the EU and its Member States can contribute to the implementation of the Global Compact for safe, orderly and regular migration. The first panel will cover the views of relevant institutional stakeholders on what can and should be done at European level. The second panel will focus on the role that social partners and civil society organisations can play in working towards achieving the compact's objectives.
The Labour Market Observatory of the EESC has organised a conference entitled "Solidarity between generations: a focus on ageing workers " on the 30 April 2019, at the EESC.
10 years after the first European Day of Solidarity between Generations (29 April 2009), we looked into the concept of solidarity and cooperation between generations, for a fairer and sustainable labour market. We put the focus on the situation of ageing workers and the preconditions for them to stay active in the new world of work. That was particularly timely, as discussions contributed to the drafting of an ongoing SOC/624 opinion on "Changing world of work and ageing workers".
The 15th meeting of the EU Advisory Group for the EU-Central America Association Agreement took place on 29 April 2019 in Brussels. Please click on the programme tab to consult the topics on the agenda.
The EESC organised its 7th Western Balkans Civil Society Forum in Tirana on 16-17 April 2019.
The main topics on the agenda were the role of civil society organisations in promoting regional cooperation (trade and investment, connectivity and people to people relations), the state of social dialogue, as well as enabling civic space in the Western Balkans.
It brought together approximately 180 participants, including a broad range of civil society representatives from the EU and the Western Balkans, as well as representatives of EU institutions, international organisations and governments of the region.
The public hearing on "Towards a more resilient and sustainable European economy with a vision for completing EMU" to be held on Friday, 12 April 2019, starting at 11.30 a.m., will discuss from a wider civil society perspective the future of the European economy and the political initiatives and decisions that need to be taken during the upcoming legislative term and beyond. Taking into account the conclusions of the debate, the EESC will draw up two own-initiative opinions, entitled "Towards a more resilient and sustainable European economy" and "A new vision for completing the Economic and Monetary Union", to be forwarded to the new European Parliament and European Commission.
The aim of the conference is to develop a new vision to support entrepreneurship and competitiveness of SMEs and to contribute towards a more SME-friendly business climate in the European Union. Discussions will aim towards defining a mature, proactive and perennial policy that will strengthen Europe in the face of today's challenges, with an accent on internationalisation and digitalisation as key tools for dealing with all these challenges.
The objective is to outline a new, reformed and bolder "European Small Business Act", by moving to the next level: from "Think Small First" to "Act Small First". The conference will be divided into four discussion panels, covering the following subjects: Finance Entrepreneurship, Young and Women Entrepreneurs, Digital Europe and European Cohesion and Regional Development.
The EU-Turkey Civil Society Joint Consultative Committee was established in 1995, based on the mandate given by the Ankara Agreement. This body is composed of members from the EESC and members representing organised civil society in Turkey. Its objective is to contribute to the dialogue among civil society organisations in Turkey and the EU and to issue reports and recommendations to the Turkish authorities and the EU institutions.
The discussions at this JCC meeting will include the EU-Turkey relations and the meeting will focus in particular on "Trade development and investment environment for SMEs - Opportunities between the EU and Turkey" and "Civil society organisations, including the social partners, and Turkey-EU Accession Process". Other topics on the programme are "The modernisation of the EU-Turkey Customs Union" and "The visa dialogue".
The 7th meeting of the EU-Ukraine Civil Society Platform took place on 3-5 April 2019 in Lviv in Ukraine. During the meeting, a debate was held assessing the state of play of the implementation of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. And two reports, prepared by both sides, on the rights of trade unions and employees and on ensuring food security were discussed.
