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Brussels, 27 November 2012
MINUTESof the 23rd meeting
of the
Liaison Group
with European civil society organisations and networks
held at the Committee building in Brussels
on 10 September 2012
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The Liaison Group with European civil society organisations and networks held its 23rd meeting in Brussels on 10September 2012, under the joint chairmanship of Staffan Nilsson, president of the EESC, and Jean-Marc Roirant, president of the European Civic Forum (ECF). The meeting started at 2.30 p.m. and finished at around 5 p.m.
ATTENDANCE LIST
· Members of the Liaison Group present
EESC representatives
Mr Staffan NilssonMr Sandy Boyle
Mr Mario Campli
Mr Brian Cassidy
Mr Georgios Dassis
Mr Edgardo Iozia
Ms Leila Kurki
Mr Krzysztof Pater
Mr Jorge Pegado Liz
Mr Michael Smyth
Mr Hans-Joachim Wilms / President of the EESC
President of the REX section
President of the NAT section
President of the INT section
President of Group II
President of the Single Market Observatory (SMO)
President of the SOC section
President of the Labour Market Observatory (LMO)
President of the CCMI
President of the ECO section
President of the Sustainable Development Observatory (SDO)
Representatives of European civil society organisations and networks
- Members
Mr Jean-Marc RoirantMr Pierre Barge
Mr Luca Bergamo
Ms Gabriella Civico
Ms Arielle Garcia
Mr Diogo Pinto
Mr Conny Reuter
Mr Luk Zelderloo / President of the European Civic Forum (ECF)
Honorary President of the European Association for Human Rights (EAHR)
Secretary-General of Culture Action Europe
Director, The European Volunteer Centre (CEV)
Deputy director of the Federation of French Mutual Health Insurance Schemes (FNMF)
Secretary-General of the International European Movement (IEM)
President of the Platform of European Social NGOs
Secretary-General of the European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD)
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- Alternates
Ms Oonagh AitkenMs Carlotta Besozzi
Ms Emmanuelle Faure / Director, (CSV) Community Service Volunteers, member of the Volonteurope Management Board
Director, European Disability Forum (EDF)
European Affairs Senior Officer, European Foundation Centre (EFC)
· Other participants
EESC members
Ms Anna Maria DarmaninMr Andris Gobiņš / EESC Vice-President
Rapporteur for the EESC Opinion on the Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European Year of Citizens (2013)
Representatives of the European Commission
Ms Ylva TivéusMs Sophie Beernaerts / Director of "Citizens" Directorate at DG Communication
Head of Unit for "Citizenship policy", "Europe for Citizens" and of the "Citizens" Directorate at DG Communication
Representatives of European civil society organisations and networks
Ms Esmé CliffordMs Anne-Charlotte Oriol
Mr Marvin Radford
Mr Piotr Sadowski
Mr Geoffrey Scaplehorn
Mr Noé Viedma / Volonteurope
European Projects Officer for the European Civic Forum (ECF).
External Relations Officer for the International Sport and Culture Association (ISCA)
Secretary-General of Volonteurope
Vice-President of the European civil society platform on lifelong learning (EUCIS-LLL)
Policy Officer at the European Civil Society Platform on Lifelong Learning (EUCIS-LLL)
· Members of the Liaison Group absent
EESC representatives
Mr Stéphane BuffetautMr Luca Jahier (excused)
Mr Henri Malosse (excused)
Mr Joost Van Iersel (excused) / President of the TEN section
President of the Various Interests Group
President of Group I
President of the Europe 2020 Steering Committee
Representatives of European civil society organisations and networks
- Members
Mr Olivier ConsoloMs Cécile Gréboval
Ms Monique Goyens
Mr Christopher Harrison
Ms Monika Kosinska
Mr Maciej Kucharczyk
Mr Gérard Peltre
Mr Étienne Pflimlin
Mr Giuseppe Porcaro (excused)
Mr Gerry Salole
Mr Jan Robert Suesser
Ms Agnes Uhereczky / Director of the European NGO Confederation for Relief and Development (CONCORD)
Secretary-General, European Women's Lobby (EWL)
Director-General of the European Consumers' Organisation (BEUC)
Former president of the European School Heads Association (ESHA)
Secretary-General of the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA)
Director-General of the European Older People's Platform (AGE)
Director of the Rurality-Environment-Development International Association (RED)
Co-president of Cooperatives Europe
Secretary-General of the European Youth Forum (EYF)
Director-General of the European Foundation Centre (EFC)
Vice-President of the European Civic Forum (ECF)
Director of the Confederation of Family Organisations in the EU (COFACE)
- Alternates
Ms Serap AltinisikMr Patrice Collignon
Mr Julien Dijol
Ms Annemie Drieskens
Ms Sabine Frank
Ms Audrey Frith (excused)
Ms Jana Hainsworth
Mr Dirk Jarré
Mr Gérard Leseul
Mr Peter Matjašič (excused)
Ms Alexandrina Najmowicz
Ms Ursula Pachl
Mr Christian Wenning / Policy Officer, European Women's Lobby (EWL)
Director of the Rurality-Environment-Development International Association (RED)
Policy coordinator, European Liaison Committee for Social Housing (CECODHAS)
President of the Confederation of Family Organisations in the EU (COFACE)
Secretary-General of the Platform for Intercultural Europe
Director, European Civil Society Platform on Lifelong Learning (EUCIS-LLL)
Secretary-General of Eurochild
International Cooperation Officer, European Federation of Older People (EURAG)
Deputy general delegate, Coordinating Committee of European Cooperative Associations (CCACE)
Secretary-General of the European Youth Forum (EYF)
Coordinator, European Civic Forum (ECF)
Deputy Director-general of the European Consumers' Organisation (BEUC)
Secretary-General of the Union of European Federalists (UEF)
· EESC Secretariat
Mr Martin WestlakeMr Nicolas Alexopoulos
Ms Maria Echevarria
Mr Patrick Fève
Mr Christian Weger
Ms Coralia Catana
Mr Peter Lindval Nielsen
Ms Valeria Atzori
Ms Fausta Palombelli / Secretary-General
Deputy Secretary-General
Director for General Affairs
Head of Unit for Relations with civil society organisations, constitutional affairs
Administrator, Unit for Relations with civil society organisations, constitutional affairs
Member of the EESC president's private office
Head of EESC Communication Department
Administrator Section for Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship
Administrator, Group II secretariat
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Staffan Nilsson welcomed participants and outlined the items on the agenda.
1. Adoption of the draft agenda (R/CESE 1776/2012)
The draft agenda was adopted.
2. Approval of the minutes of the 22nd meeting held on 20 April 2012 (R/CESE 1517/2012)
The minutes were approved.
3. Enlarging the Liaison Group to include voluntary organisations
Jean-Marc Roirant announced that he and the Committee president had received a joint request from two new European civil society organisations wishing to join the Liaison Group and represent the voluntary sector. The organisations were the European Volunteer Centre (CEV) and the organisation "Volonteurope".
He reminded members that under the Liaison Group rules of procedure, any request to enlarge the Liaison Group to include as yet unrepresented sectors of European organised civil society should be made in the form of a joint proposal by the EESC president and the co-chair, to be submitted to all members for approval.
He then invited Gabriella Civico, Director of the European Volunteer Centre and Oonagh Aitken, member of the Volonteurope Management Board to give a brief description of their organisations.
After these presentations, Jean-Marc Roirant declared that these two organisations fulfilled all the criteria of representativeness set out in the Liaison Group's rules of procedure, according to which an organisation or European network might represent a sector of civil society.
The two co-chairs then put forward these two applications for approval by Liaison Group members and they were approved unanimously.
Jean-Marc Roirant noted that Gabriella Civico would attend as a member and Oonagh Aitken as an alternate and that 22 sectors of European organised civil society would henceforth be represented within the Liaison Group.
4. Rio+20 Conference of June 2012 – EESC conclusions and next steps
Emphasising that it had been a collective process and not undertaken by the Committee alone, Staffan Nilsson first reminded members of the positive contribution made by the Liaison Group's member European organisations and networks to framing the civil society position presented to the Rio conference by the EESC. As an EU institutional body, the EESC thus had a special role to play with regard to sustainable development and this was the reason for the Committee being part of the Commission delegation to the Rio+20 Conference. The Committee had also organised several events on the fringes of this conference, the meeting with representatives from the national Economic and Social Councils and Similar Institutions of the BRIC countries on 19 June and the meeting on 21June, attended by President Barroso, which aimed to share experiences of involving civil society in the area of sustainable development.
With regard to substance, Staffan Nilsson noted that the general view of the Rio agreement was that it lacked ambition and was short on decisions on grass-roots level action. This outcome was, however, probably inevitable given the general concern about reaching a global consensus. This made it all the more important to pursue the debate on the follow-up to the Rio summit. With respect to this, he noted that in certain quarters, among environmentalists in particular, the question being asked was whether the EU should not subscribe to a more ambitious sustainable development strategy than the current one. President Barroso was of the view, however, that the only genuine strategy for the EU was the Europe 2020 strategy, all pillars of which had to include sustainability. He reminded members that the EESC was in fact organising a major conference to debate the Europe 2020 strategy on 25 September and invited all Liaison Group members to attend.
With regard to follow-up to the Rio conference, he reiterated that it was only one stage of the process and that work had to be continued if the transition to a new "green" economic order was to be ensured. Although the idea of a "green economy" had been recognised by the Rio Conference as important for sustainable development, no road map had been adopted.
He concluded therefore that it was now important to look to the future and for the EESC to continue to work with all its partners. In the light of this, he announced that a meeting would be held at the Committee on 9 October with representatives from all institutions and the Committee of the Regions to discuss the EU-level follow-up to Rio+20.
Jean-Marc Roirant then gave the floor to Hans-Joachim Wilms, president of the Sustainable Development Observatory.
Hans-Joachim Wilms confirmed that the EESC delegation had returned from the Rio conference with mixed feelings as to its outcome. He nevertheless conceded that the agreement achieved had opened up several avenues worth exploring fully. He felt that there was a two or three year window of opportunity for achieving sustainability targets and also for working on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
As for the Sustainable Development Observatory itself, he noted that it was still considering the specific nature of its contribution to Rio+20 follow-up. Synergies between various activities would have to be developed and the key question was how to contribute to the overall political process at European level.
Jean-Marc Roirant then opened the subject up to general discussion.
Sandy Boyle seconded the comments made by Staffan Nilsson and Hans-Joachim Wilms and was pleased that a joint declaration had been able to be presented subsequent to the meeting with BRIC country representatives. He also underlined the importance of post Rio+20 and, agreeing with the previous speaker, considered the next three years crucial for achieving the objectives set.
He mentioned that the European Parliament was pushing hard for all trade agreements undertaken in the framework of the WTO to contain a heading on sustainable development and considered it imperative that follow-up mechanisms be put in place here.
Conny Reuter congratulated the Committee on its involvement in the area of sustainability, which Staffan Nilsson had made one of his mandate's work priorities, and congratulated the Sustainable Development Observatory on the work it had accomplished. He hoped that the Committee would continue to involve organised civil society in its reflections and work as much as possible in the future, particularly via the Liaison Group, so as to allow all stakeholders to contribute in accordance with their individual areas of expertise.
As president of the Platform of European Social NGOs, he was pleased, thanks in particular to the efforts and work of the ILO, to note that sustainability's social dimension had been brought up in the Rio+20 Final Conference Declaration and been included in the debate.
With regard to the outcome of the conference, his organisation was pleased with the work accomplished and the progress made over the months running up to the Conference which allowed the Final Declaration to be adopted, which although a compromise, was a good one nonetheless. The political risk now lay, however, in becoming complacent in the face of a real need to act. He thought that, whilst the Commission claimed sustainability as one of the dimensions of the EU 2020 strategy, the European Union did not really have a genuine action plan for sustainability. In his view, this strategy contained no specifics with regard to sustainability.
Conny Reuter added that it was important to be aware that it was now no longer simply a matter of pursuing sustainable development targets, but also of achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, which, as things stood, was still a tall order.
Mario Campli wondered as to the best way of carrying on the work post Rio+20, and noted that the Committee had undertaken an initial exchange of views on this subject at its July plenary session. The debates had indicated that many businesses had fully committed to implementing production methods that supported sustainable development and the creation of green jobs. It was therefore important that all stakeholders affected by sustainable development be able to look at their own particular situations in order to draw lessons for the future and debate specific actions to be taken. He thought that the Committee could function as an appropriate forum for this, enabling it to play a specific and very constructive role in line with its raison d'être.
Once this speech had concluded, and as no other members of the Liaison Group wished to speak, Jean-Marc Roirant turned to the next item on the agenda.
5. European Year of Citizens (2013) – State of preparation
Jean-Marc Roirant welcomed Anna Maria Darmanin, EESC vice-president responsible for communication, Andris Gobiņš, chair of the EESC coordination group on the "European Year of Citizens (2013)", and YlvaTyvéus, director of the European Commission's "Citizens" C Directorate at DG Communication. He then gave the floor to Anna Maria Darmanin.
Anna Maria Darmanin began by giving an overview of communication activities to be undertaken by the EESC with regard to the European Year of Citizens 2013. She explained that in the context of the Interinstitutional Group on Information (IGI) for the Years 2013-2014, this 2013 Year was to be one of the three priorities in the communication area three priorities, the other two being economic recovery and the communication campaign for elections to the European Parliament in 2014. She considered these three priorities intimately linked in terms of increasing turn-out for these elections, which would provide a measure of popular feeling towards the European Union in general.