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.
Les présidents du CESE, de la Commission européenne et du Parlement européen clôturent le forum des parties prenantes. Georges Dassis, président du Comité économique et social européen (CESE), a participé le 12 avril à la séance de clôture du forum des parties prenantes sur le corps européen de solidarité aux côtés de Jean-Claude Juncker, président de la Commission européenne, et Antonio Tajani, président du Parlement européen ...
With discussions for TTIP now at a critical point, the EESC has published a new opinion, ‘The position of the EESC on specific key issues of the TTIP negotiations’. The own-initiative opinion assesses some key issues of the negotiations and identifies the main considerations for European civil society. This new ...
EESC President Georges Dassis participated in the presentation of the pilot project "European Framework for mobility of apprentices", in Toledo, Spain, on 30 September. After the enormous success of the Erasmus programme (for higher education students), the European Union is launching a new project, this time focused on vocational education for trainees and apprentices (who do not go to university or college). As Europe is facing a difficult time when it comes to creating jobs ...
Since 1987, the Erasmus exchange programme has had a major impact on the lives of more than 9 million EU citizens by allowing them to take part in multicultural exchanges and develop new skills. At an event organized by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) on 18 May, Erasmus was recognized as a milestone in the creation of a European identity. The event was celebrated on ...
More than 120 million people in the EU face the risk of poverty or social exclusion[1]
The European Economic and Social Committee and the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation held their seventh joint seminar in Brussels on 27 September 2017. Both sides highlighted that civil society has an instrumental role to play in contributing to sustainable economic, social and cultural development, democracy and human rights, and fostering people-to-people contacts – one of the guiding principles underpinning the EU's engagement with Russia.
The 1st and inaugural meeting of the EU-Georgia Civil Society Platform (CSP) was held on 16th June 2016 in Tbilisi and was co-chaired by Andrzej Adamczyk, member of the EESC, and Kakha Gogolashvili, chairman of the Georgian National Platform at the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum. The participants in the first CSP meeting adopted a joint declaration, assessing the state of play of the EU-Georgia Association Agreement's implementation and acknowledging the considerable progress achieved by Georgia since the beginning of the Association process. Nevertheless, they called ...
33 schools from across Europe selected to come to Brussels to discuss migration
After the COP21 in Paris came up with a number of financial commitments by all sorts of national and international donors, EU and African socio-economic stakeholders gathering in Nairobi called for better information on and access to climate-mitigation funding. Members of ...
33 schools from across Europe to come to Brussels to discuss the future of the EU. Today the EESC selected the schools which will be participating in this year's edition of Your Europe Your Say!, its flagship event for youth. In 2017, the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome will be the theme of the Committee’s annual "Your Europe, Your Say!" youth event, offering young people from around Europe the opportunity to share their ideas about the EU of yesterday, today and tomorrow.
