Comitato economico e sociale europeo
The EESC's engagement with civil society organisations in Russia is governed by the five guiding principles for EU-Russia relations agreed between EU foreign ministers and the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. One of these guiding principles is "support for people-to-people contacts".
Dialogue and the exchange of experiences between civil society representatives from the EU and Russia contribute in a significant way to the continued implementation of the EU-Russia Strategic Partnership. The EESC has adopted a two-stranded approach to its relations with Russian civil society in order to engage with as wide a range of civil society representatives as possible. On the one hand, it maintains relations with the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, its official Russian counterpart, and organises – amongst other things – annual joint seminars on topics of interest to civil society on both sides. The EESC's other partner is the EU-Russia Civil Society Forum, which brings together a different set of civil society organisations.
The EU-Russia Follow-up Committee is an internal EESC body, which acts as a steering group, and is responsible for developing and maintaining relations and organising meetings and joint seminars with civil society in Russia.
The 2014 edition of the Your Europe, Your Say event by the European Economic and Social Committee brought groups of 16 and 17 year-olds from all 28 Member States to Brussels. Their main objective was to set five priorities for what Europe should do to become a better place and be more relevant to its citizens.
Members' conclusions after the conference held in Vilnius on 25 October
Conclusions of the debate which took place during the Extraordinary Meeting of the Employers’ Group Bureau in Vienna on 22nd October 2013.
The main messages of the 6 EESC opinions on Eastern Partnership.
Conclusions of the EESC Coordination Group for the European Year of Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations 2012.
The five ideas are a distillation of the dreams and aspirations encountered across Europe. Concrete proposals on democracy, employment, rights, education, and the European public sphere.
