European Economic
and Social Committee
EESC RENEWAL: Pietro Vittorio Barbieri, new Vice-President of the EESC Civil Society Organisations’ Group
EU Member State responsible for his nomination as EESC member:
Italy
Nomination as representative of:
Italian platform Third Sector Forum - Forum Nazionale del Terzo Settore
Educational background and professional experience:
I was 20 years old when a dive into the sea gave me a spinal cord injury and a thus a permanent disability, putting an end to my dream of being a town planner. It was 1987 and architectural drawing was still being done by hand. I changed tack and enrolled in the faculty of humanities, but a passion for politics took over: I became involved in the student movement and took up the cause of people with disabilities. The level of discrimination encountered was such that I focused primarily on the disabilities issue. My focus has never been limited to just a few forms of discrimination. Minorities in general have been the subject of my personal studies, progressing to the focal point of human rights. I worked for improvements in Italian, European and international legislation. The pinnacle of this work was taking on the role of advisor to the Italian Government’s delegation to the United Nations ad hoc committee developing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
The rule-of-law approach was therefore my first port of call. The democratic model I was looking at required in-depth consideration of economic paradigms. The contrast between existing theories and individual freedoms inevitably arose. Research has thus been the second focus in my life, into non-profit, solidarity-based, mutual and democratic forms of business model. In Italy, the third sector is defined as types of activity in which individuals choose to earn less to ensure substantive equality between colleagues, with a strong focus on working for people’s rights, environmental sustainability, and culture and knowledge for all. I was then chosen to lead the Italian platform – the Third Sector Forum.
At the EESC, my most meaningful work may well have been on civil dialogue, which cuts to the heart of the work performed by the civil society organisations represented in the Civil Society Organisations’ Group. In order to address such a sensitive topic, I had to establish dialogue with the EESC's Employers’ Group and Workers’ Group, and work in close coordination with the European networks representing civil society through the EESC's Liaison Group and other bodies.
Motivation for the Vice-Presidency:
Clearly, my efforts as Vice-President of the Civil Society Organisations’ Group are directed towards all forms of exclusion and poverty, the rule of law and respect for minorities, and of course towards participatory models of the economy, public policy and society – meaning civil dialogue. Other topics: increasing transparency in the method used to assign work to members of our Group, monitoring the implementation of the new regulation concerning members' status, ensuring that restrictions on the EESC budget do not limit members’ scope of action, and finding a solution to differences of opinion arising between the Committee's Employers’ and Workers’ Groups.