Press releases

  • Reference number
    4 / 2019

    The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), the EU house of organised civil society, represented by its Diversity Europe Group, met at Queen's University in Belfast on 15 February 2019 to take stock of the Brexit process and focus on its consequences for the Northern Ireland peace process.

  • Reference number
    3 / 2019

    The January plenary session of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) hosted a debate with the Romanian Prime Minister Vasilica-Viorica Dăncilă on the priorities of the Romanian EU presidency for the first semester of 2019. EESC President Luca Jahier underlined how important it was, on the eve of the EU elections, to restore the trust of the European people in politics.

  • Reference number
    02/2019

    The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) adopted at its plenary session on 24 January an opinion calling for an ambitious reform of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in order to overcome the current crisis while highlighting EU values and the EU's leading role in sustainability. WTO was created in 1995 as the guardian of international trade, but in the last few years its role has been compromised by increasing protectionism and major changes in the structure of international trade.

  • Euromed 2018
    Reference number
    60/2018

    2018 Euromed Summit of Economic and Social Councils and similar institutions

    Members of civil society representative bodies from countries of the Euro-Mediterranean region met in Turin to discuss the situation of education and training in the area. Although the challenges faced by each of the countries are different, as access to education and training is very unbalanced in the region, the general consensus was that investing in human capital is essential for the sustainable development of the countries, but also to ensure regional stability and security.

  • Reference number
    59 / 2018

    First EC Vice-President Frans Timmermans speaks on the rule of law and a sustainable Europe at the EESC's last plenary in 2018

    We need a swift change to a sustainable Europe, and to achieve it the support of local and regional authorities and civil societies is crucial, said EESC president Luca Jahier at the outset of a debate with First Vice-President Frans Timmermans on sustainability and the rule of law during the EESC's December plenary. We need to dare a new future for Europe, or as we call it a rEUnaissance. In order to have the support of our citizens, it is crucial that we focus on opportunities rather than new liabilities for our citizens, Mr Jahier added.

  • Reference number
    58 / 2018

    The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) today awarded five civil society organisations for their outstanding projects that reassert European values, celebrate the diversity of Europe's many identities and promote cultural heritage as a way of bringing Europeans together again.

  • men speaking

    On 13 December 2018, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) adopted an own-initiative opinion on the costs of non-immigration and non-integration. It focuses on the impact of immigration and of migrants' integration on EU society in terms of practical life.

  • Reference number
    56 / 2018

    Non-state and subnational actors have so far played a decisive role in action on climate, but they often face unsurmountable obstacles. At the COP 24 climate change conference in Katowice, Poland, on 2-14 December 2018, the president of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), Luca Jahier, stressed how urgent it was to tackle climate change and underlined the fact that Europe needed to embrace a new mechanism for sustainability that included multi-stakeholder governance.

  • Reference number
    55 / 2018

    Thirty-three schools from across Europe will come to Brussels next March to debate their views, hopes and expectations about the forthcoming European elections. They will come up with three proposals encapsulating their generation's topmost priorities for European Parliament to tackle. The European Economic and Social committee (EESC) will make sure they reach the law-makers.