News

  • The EESC Workers' Group was honoured to welcome Tim Roache, General Secretary of the GMB, the UK's third largest trade union, at its Group meeting on 19 October. Mr Roache and the Workers' Group members discussed the issues around the UK referendum vote to leave the EU and the trade union strategy for securing the best outcome for working people during the exit negotiations.

  • The global urban agenda was adopted in the course of the UN Habitat III meeting in Quito where Mr Joost van IERSEL, ECO president, Mr Roman HAKEN, ECO Vice-President, and Mr Stefano PALMIERI, EESC Member, were part of the official EU delegation.

  • The European Economic and Social Committee, in cooperation with the Economic and Social Council of Greece, is organising its yearly Euro-Mediterranean Summit of Economic and Social Councils and Similar Institutions on 24 and 25 October in Vravrona, Greece.

     

    The Summit aims to promote greater understanding of the main issues affecting organised civil society in the Euromed region and to discuss the common challenges they face in order to propose concrete solutions.

  • On 12 October, Georges Dassis, President of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), was for the first time in Portugal in this quality, to attend the 25th anniversary of the Portuguese Economic and Social Council (CES), in Lisbon.

    The event started with an opening speech by the President of the Portuguese CES, Luís Filipe Pereira, and had the special participation of the President of the Portuguese Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

  • In connection with the Appeal of 9 May, which was signed by numerous key figures from different political backgrounds and social leanings, including the EESC president, a conference was held in Paris on 15 October on the theme: Reinventing Europe: roadmap for a new European renaissance. The closing speech was given by the French president, François Hollande, while other participants included Michel Barnier, Maria João Rodriguez, Daniel Cohn Bendit, Luca Visentini, Sylvie Goulard and Jo Leinen.

  • The President of the European Economic and Social Committee, George Dassis met on 17 October 2016 with a delegation of the "Turkey Democracy Platform" comprising prominent jurists, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and other civil society representatives who are currently visiting Brussels with a view to exchange views with European Union leaders on the socio-political and economic conjuncture in Turkey at the aftermath of the failed coup attempt.  

  • Today, 54% of the world’s population lives in urban areas, a proportion that is expected to increase to 66% by 2050, according to the United Nations. In Europe, cities provide up to 85% of the region’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Taking these two factors into account, the Section for Economic and Monetary Union and Economic and Social Cohesion (ECO Section) of the European Economic and Social Committee organised - within the European Week of Regions and Cities - a workshop on Cities as poles of up-to-date economic development, with three examples of "model to follow" cities: Lisbon, Bristol, and Lodz, where competitiveness, innovation and creativity co-exist on a large scale ...

  • On 12 October, Georges Dassis, President of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), was for the first time in Portugal in this quality, to attend the 25th anniversary of the Portuguese Economic and Social Council (CES), in Lisbon. The event started with an opening speech by the President of the Portuguese CES, Luís Filipe Pereira, and had the special participation of President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. To celebrate the creation ...

  • "If we are unable to deliver social and economic upward convergence, the future of Europe is at risk” said the President of the EESC’s Workers’ Group, Gabriele Bischoff, opening a two-day meeting in Bratislava on 12-13 October on the theme "A Europe that works for workers - fair mobility and strong labour rights”. The Workers’ Group of the European Economic and Social Committee held the important debate in Slovakia, which currently holds the Presidency of the Council of the EU. Prime Minister Robert Fico spoke ...

  • Joost van Iersel, President of the EESC's ECO section, attends the EPC 20th Anniversary Conference