Fwd: EMI and EESC affirm their commitment to European integration and Civil Society dialogue
Viktor Yengibaryan
EMI and EESC affirm their commitment to European integration and Civil Society dialogue
The President of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), Staffan Nilsson, welcomed Jo Leinen for his first visit at the EESC premises in his new function as President of the European Movement International (EMI).
The EMI and the EESC can look back on a highly successful cooperation. Over the past years, both organisations have been closely working together in order to enable Civil Society to express their views on the European level and to provide a platform of discourse and exchange.
The Presidents used this inaugural visit to affirm their commitment to the process of European integration, particularly in the light of the recent financial and economic crisis as well as the emergence of nationalist political visions.
With the perspective of Croatia to become the 28th Member State of the European Union in July 2013, the EMI and the EESC will continue to strengthen their joint efforts to promote further European integration of the South-East Europe region as well as the countries of the Eastern Partnership.
The promotion of European values as well as a more democratic European Union will remain at the core of the organisations activity portfolio. The parties also agreed on enhancing dialogue with civil society at all levels and discussed forms of a more in depth cooperation in 2012.
Lastly, Staffan Nilsson and Jo Leinen welcomed this week’s approval of the European Commission for a Council regulation on the Statute for European Foundations but stressed that in order to ensure that the European dimension of Civil Society Organisations is truly taken seriously, Associations and Mutual Societies should be awarded the same legal status.
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