The EESC issues between 160 and 190 opinions and information reports a year.
It also organises several annual initiatives and events with a focus on civil society and citizens’ participation such as the Civil Society Prize, the Civil Society Days, the Your Europe, Your Say youth plenary and the ECI Day.
Here you can find news and information about the EESC'swork, including its social media accounts, the EESC Info newsletter, photo galleries and videos.
The EESC brings together representatives from all areas of organised civil society, who give their independent advice on EU policies and legislation. The EESC's326 Members are organised into three groups: Employers, Workers and Various Interests.
The EESC has six sections, specialising in concrete topics of relevance to the citizens of the European Union, ranging from social to economic affairs, energy, environment, external relations or the internal market.
This workshop is exactly in line with what we had declared we would be doing to bring Rio home: we keep up the momentum for further promoting sustainable development, we want European civil society to be involved and we want to contribute with concrete proposals.
Staffan Nilsson`s address at the European civil society workshop on Sustainable Development Goals
In February last year, Mrs Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, talking about EU-Brazil relations said that this is a relationship that is important, but she didn’t think that the EU had made it as important as it ought to be. We support the need to go deeper in our relations with Brazil. And here’s the evidence: we are again meeting today, keeping up the regular pace of our exchanges, willing to produce joint work that will be useful also to our political leaders.
So we will send the result of this Round Table to Mrs Ashton, and to the Brazilian authorities, as we always do, in order to provide a civil society contribution to her important work. And we are doing it right in time for the next EU-Brazil Summit that will take place in Brasília in two days from now.
The EESC President`s opening speech at the 7th EU- Brazil Round Table
Sustainable development is a long-term objective and needs continuous action, and in particular civil society involvement all over the world. Rio+20 was an important mobilising factor for civil society around the world, we need to keep up the momentum and to hold our governments accountable for what they have agreed to in Rio de Janeiro last June.
It has been one of the very positive experiences during my Presidency at the EESC to see how much we Europeans and you Brazilians agreed on key elements that were on the table of the negotiators at the Rio+20 Conference.
Staffan Nilsson`s speech at the 7th EU-Brazil Round Table- Rio+20 assesment
"...
The hearing this afternoon is focussed on the topics "inclusive green economy" and "sustainable development goals" because these were the two topics that the stakeholders stressed most when we had our Rio de-briefing session in early July. ..."
President Stafan Nilsson speech at the hearing Rio+20 follow up: European civil society contribution to the Commission's consultation
The EESC has been very actively involved in the run-up to Rio, enhancing civil society dialogue in preparation of the Conference and at the Conference.
We were committed to contributing to the EU's position and to mobilising EU civil society in order to push EU and world leaders towards an ambitious outcome.
We know now that the outcome text has not been as ambitious as we Europeans would have wished it to be. Now we have to work to make the agreement a success by advancing further on the processes that were launched and by implementing at least here in Europe the proposals that we have put forward in New York and in Rio de Janeiro.
Staffan Nilsson`s speech at the Rio+20 Follow up working session
The EESC has been very actively involved in the run-up to Rio, enhancing civil society dialogue in preparation of the Conference and at the Conference. We were committed to contributing to the EU's position and to mobilising EU civil society in order to push EU and world leaders towards an ambitious outcome. Now, coming back from Rio we wanted to bring Rio home, share the assessment of the EESC Rio delegation with all EESC members and start dialogue with wider European civil society and the European Commission on the Rio follow-up.
President's speech at the EPC Policy Dialogue "Road from Rio: state actors as drivers of sustainable development?"
The EESC has been very actively involved in the run-up to Rio, enabling civil society dialogue in preparation of the Conference and at the Conference.
We were committed to contributing to the EU's position and to mobilising EU civil society in order to push EU and world leaders towards an ambitious outcome.
President's speech at the EESC Plenary debate: "Bringing Rio home"
... "The method of democracy – inasfar as it is that of organised intelligence – is to bring … conflicts [of interest] out into the open where their special claims can be seen and appraised...” (John Dewey). We are all stakeholders!
R K Larsen, Bringing Rio Home - EESC, 5 July 2012, Brussels
Doreen Fedrigo-Fazio - IEEP (Intstitute for European Environmental Policies)
..."Seize an opportunity to ask the public what it wants – build on strongest engagement ever at such an international SD conference (Rio+20: >10.000 people of 30.000) to launch an open dialogue and consultation on what the EU needs to ensure that SD is clearly defined (targets), design an effective strategic vehicle, supported by enabling mechanisms, and has active support from key stakeholders (civil society, companies/business, local/regional governments, scientific/research community, etc.)..."
In this event we want to share experiences of civil society participation by looking at different models from global, regional, national and local level. There is no right or wrong model, as long the dialogue and involvement were have come out into meaningful results and make an impact.
President's opening speech at the Rio+20 EESC side event: Civil society taking global responsibility