Campaign for better representation of civil society in European Economic and Social Committee

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) is a consultative body within the European Union. The EESC is the Institution which athers diverse economic, and social actors to take part in EU policy-making.

Its main task is to give advice to the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission. The Treaties stipulate that the EESC must be consulted on certain issues, and in addition EU Institutions may seek its advice when they deem it appropriate. It also has the ability to take the initiative and issue an opinion on a topic (known as own-initiative opinions).

The Campaign

Within the framework of a new treaty and the membership renewal, a coalition of Civil Society Organisations is calling for the composition of the EESC to be more reflective of European civil society. Currently, CSOs can only be members of group III (Various Interests Group). The coalition states that only about 35% of the ’’Various Interests’’ group are representatives of civil society organisations.

The members of the campaign are:
 The European Civil Forum,
 COFACE,
 The European Disability Forum,
 AGE-Platform,
 European Association for the defense of Human Rights,
 European Youth Forum,
 Eurochild,
 European Movement,
 European Civil Society Platform on Lifelong Learning,
 European Foundation Centre,
 Solidar,
 European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities, and
 The European Council for non-profit organisation (CEDAG).

EESC Membership

Members are currently being appointed by the Council of Ministers of the European Union for a five-year period..

The EESC is composed of 344 members from national organisations in the 27 EU Member States. Members are divided into three Groups:

 the “Employers” group, these members come from both the private and public sectors, (industry, SMEs, Chambers of Commerce, retail and wholesale, banks and insurance companies, transport and agriculture);

 the “Employees” group represents the entire spectrum of employees (from workers to top executives). Its membership is made up of national trade union organisations;

 the “Various Interests” group, convenes representatives from the economic, social and civic sectors that do not fit into the first two groupings. i.e. bodies representing craftsmen, farmers, professions, consumers, environmentalists, social economy organisations (cooperatives, mutual associations), family associations, etc.

The EU Council secretariat has asked the 27 permanent EU representations to communicate the names of potential members of the EESC. These lists should be communicated to the Council before the end of May 2010. The final list will be approved by the Council on July 2010. The EESC will hold the last plenary in its current composition on 15 and 16 September 2010.

For Further Information

 Background note on the role and functioning of the European Economic and Social Committee
 The European Economic and Social C...
 Campaign for a better representation of the diversity of organised civil society in the European Economic and Social Committee

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