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European Economic and Social Committee
Brussels, 18 June 2008
Committee of the Regions' Plenary Session
Brussels, 18 June 2008
Speech given by Mr Dimitriadis,
EESC President
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Dear President, honourable Members of the Committee of the Regions,
It is a great honour and pleasure for me to speak in front of you at your plenary session.
I would like particularly, to thank the President of the Committee of the Regions, Mr. Luc Van den Brande, who is at the same time a close friend of mine, for his kind invitation.
It is true that I feel myself at home being with you here today. And this is for several reasons.
This is the European Parliament's hemicycle which serves both our institutions as meeting room for our plenary sessions. It is in this very same room that your President, my dear friend Luc Van den Brande, joined us only three weeks ago to celebrate with us the 50th anniversary of the European Economic and Social Committee. And you all know very well that we share our headquarters only two buildings apart from here in rue Belliard.
It is unique in the European Union institutional setting that two institutions are so closely linked and we should be proud of this since it is in the interest of the European citizens that this happens.
EESC and CoR – two advisory bodies, complementary in tasks and stakeholders.
Our two committees are both advisory bodies that can contribute to shaping the European policymaking taking into account citizens' interests.
You, as representatives of regions and local collectivities are very close to the citizens, to their problems and to their needs. We, as representatives of organised civil society, are very close to the citizens' problems and needs as well since we represent them in their different social and economic functions. Both of us know the reality of every-day life in our Member States, both of us have the responsibility to ensure that Europe is not just limited to the area of Brussels European quarter.
I strongly believe that our European cohesion can only be achieved through communication, through correct canalized dissemination of information.
So our two Committees are embedded in the reality of Europe and it is our responsibility to make this reality heard.
Fortunately, the reforms taken place these last years and the citizens' reactions to them have increased the acceptance of this necessity.
Nowadays, consultation is not anymore a mere procedural requirement, but it becomes a key element in the European decision-making process which guarantees that a channel be opened towards local and regional authorities and organised civil society to provide their input in the European legislative process.
The CoR and the EESC therefore have become effective expressions of the need to ensure the participation of other actors in the shaping of the European edifice and underline the significance of multi-level governance, which favours the interaction of all stakeholders in the various tiers of government and administrations.
In this regard, the role of the two institutions is complementary and as such has lead to fruitful cooperation initiatives geared towards achieving better regulation in the EU. This welcome cooperation is to be intensified in the future, especially under the prism of the enhanced role entrusted by the Lisbon Treaty to the EU's consultative bodies. In this context the CoR and the EESC have the responsibility to raise awareness in the other European Institutions, of the input, which the consultative bodies can provide through the stakeholders they respectively represent.
I very much believe that the extent to which we manage to interlink the different levels of policymaking and policyshaping is crucial to the success of politics in our complex world. To build up a Europe with a human face means making sure that what is done on the different levels of power is what really matters to people.
We are now in the very process of having the Lisbon Treaty ratified by our Member States.
Iregret very much that the campaign leading up to the referendum in Ireland had been poisoned by a lack of communication, a communication isolated "behind political closed doors". We must respect the Irish voteeven if it brings no resultsbut we must now consider the way forward.
The current treaties neither fit a European Union of 27 Members States, nor do they equip the EU with the instruments it urgently needs to meet the challenges ahead, such as globalisation, climate change and energy issues, as President Pottering expressed it: The ratification of the Lisbon treaty by 18 Member States, must be treated with the same respect as the Irish rejection .....
I know that you – as we are - preparing yourselves to this new legal framework. To you, I know, the importance the Lisbon Treaty attaches to the principle of subsidiarity is crucial. I have already expressed my conviction that we in Europe have to make sure that every level of our multi-tier setting is heard and that everything is done on the most appropriate level. I am happy that the Lisbon Treaty recognizes this. As far as I know, you are setting up a Subsidiarity Monitoring Network and I can only congratulate you for this excellent initiative.
I can tell you that our own network with national ESCs has proven to be very successful. One example of this collaboration is our work on the Lisbon strategy. We have set up a network with European national Economic and social committees to bridge the European and national level concerning the Lisbon reforms.
The EESC presented a summary report on the role of the organised civil society in the implementation of the renewed Lisbon strategy for the latest spring European Council summit on 14-15 March 2008.
This report was very much welcomed by the European Council Presidency, in particular because of the involvement of the national Economic and Social Councils – which added their own respective country specific reports - in addition to the “European view” presented by the EESC. We will enhance this cooperation furthermore by focussing on some thematic aspects like for instance the impact of energy and climate on the Lisbon strategy.
I can see that this is an approach which becomes more and more accepted and where the two Committees have an important say.Let us take just another example, because I know that you have it on your agenda tomorrow morning: The Commission's Communication on Communicating Europe in Partnership.
The EESC has adopted its opinion during our April plenary session in which it clearly supports the partnership approach and the philosophy of "going local" by developing network structures. Our respective members, based in civil society organisation and social partners in the Member States, as well as in regional and local authorities, are excellent resource persons for enhancing the Commission's communication objectives.
I truly believe that the local roots of the two Committees' respective stakeholders are our asset in the institutional setting of the European Union and that we should use this asset to the benefit of European citizens.
As regards cooperation between the two Committees:
I strongly believe that it is in the interest of our two Committees to collaborate even more than we do today.
When I came into office two years ago, I made it one of the priorities of my Presidency's programme to complete the negotiations underway for a new Cooperation Agreement linking our two Committees and to implement it successfully. I am happy that I could sign it with your predecessor Michel Delebarre at the end of last year with effect from 1 January 2008 until 2014. I also very much welcome the idea that the implementation of this new Cooperation Agreement is being monitored politically by the newly-found Political Monitoring Group.
In addition to this administrative cooperation, there is a lot of political cooperation on an ad hoc basis going on, as you all might know. I warmly recall our common hearing last year on the follow-up to the Commission's White Paper on services of general interest. Our sections and commissions invite each other to conferences and hearings and our rapporteurs on same topics meet often.
I would like to suggest regular meetings at presidential level where we could exchange views about possible thematic cooperation. It is evident that we work with the same European agenda, and on some topics it might be interesting to combine our efforts.
We have different stakeholders to represent, our approaches are different, and I am truly convinced that this diversity can enrich our cooperation to the benefit of the European citizen we all have at the core of our interests!
Let's build together a European Union with a human face taking into account the views and needs of organised civil society in all our MemberStates, regions and cities!
Thank you very much for your kind welcome and I wish all of you very interesting discussions during your plenary session!
My dear friend Luc Van den Brande, it would be a honour for the European Economic and Social Committee if you could join us in one of our plenary sessions to continue our fruitful exchange of views!
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