EU candidate countries join the work of the European Economic and Social Committee
On 15 February, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) officially launched its initiative to welcome civil society representatives from EU candidate countries, including Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
A total of 131 ‘Enlargement Candidate Members’ (ECM) were selected to make up the pool of civil society experts who will be participating in the Committee’s work, thus making the EESC the first institution to open its doors to EU candidate countries. This number includes 15 experts from Georgia, 16 from Moldova, and 22 from Ukraine. The full list of ECMs selected for the pool is available on this website.
“We cannot keep candidate countries in the waiting room any longer,” EESC President Oliver Röpke said. “We need to start working together now – exchanging views, building connections, and fostering a strong and healthy civil society. This is why the EESC decided to open its doors to candidate countries and involve their representatives – the ‘Enlargement Candidate Members’ – in our work.” He added that enlargement is one of “the most critical and strategic choices for the future of the European Union and this continent”.
The ECM is a pilot project that allows representatives from civil society organisations in EU candidate countries (employers, trade unionists and representatives of civil society organisations at large) to participate in the advisory work of the EESC. This means that these representatives will contribute to the drafting process of selected EESC opinions and participate in the relevant study groups, section meetings and selected EESC Plenary Sessions. In practical terms, there will be a total of three ECMs per candidate country participating in the preparation of an opinion.
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