The EESC President, Georges Dassis, met today with the First Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, to deliver the EESC contribution to the Commission's 2017 Work Programme. President Dassis used this occasion to emphasise that the European Union had to regain momentum in 2017. He said that "the European Commission must strive to restore a spirit of solidarity and responsibility ...
Yesterday 51 new and renewed delegates attended the first meeting of the EESC Consultative Committee on Industrial Change (CCMI) under the new EESC mandate. CCMI delegates represent the different economic and social sectors and civil society organisations who are affected by or involved in bringing about industrial change. They make up one half of the members of the CCMI and will work alongside the same number of EESC memberswho sit on the CCMI. They will remain in office until 31 December 2020.
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), together with the Luxembourg Presidency, the European Parliament and the Commission, organised a high-level conference on the Transatlantic Trade, Investment and Partnership Agreement (TTIP) that the United States and Europe have been negotiating for nearly two and half years. Participants called for more transparency, better involvement of social partners and in particular for comprehensive information and communication on all impacts of TTIP – both positive and negative - as discussions showed that many questions remain open, which Commissioner Malmström strove to answer as clearly as possible. "Only an agreement which has the broad support of the social partners and civil society will be a good and sustainable agreement", was the bottom line.
