European Economic and Social Committee Opinions

The (European) Economic and Social Committee consists of representatives of organised civil society, and it must be consulted by the Council or by the Commission where the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC) so provides.

The EESC (or ESC) may be consulted in other cases, as well as by the European Parliament. The EESC may issue opinions on its own initiative.

The relevant treaty provisions on this advisory body are Articles 257 to 267 TEC (in the Treaty of Lisbon Articles 300 to 304 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union; TFEU).


Opinions

As with the Committee of the Regions, the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee is a mandatory requirement for Community legislation, when provided by the TEC, and the opinion is mentioned in the Preamble of the act.

For a student or researcher digging deeper into a Community act, the opinion is an essential reference.

The Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) is the prime source for official materials on the European Union.

Far from the hectic pace of public information on the web and daily news reporting, the opinions of the European Economic and Social Committee are published in the OJEU with some delay.

The latest example is today’s OJEU 30.4.2009 C 100, where you find the opinions of the European Economic and Social Committee of the 448th plenary session held on 21 to 23 October 2008.






In other words, official publication takes place about six months after the session. Luckily, you can search the opinions by later sessions on the EESC web page Opinion Search.




Ralf Grahn

European Union: Organised civil society programme

The advisory European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) consists of representatives of organised civil society, and the provisions are found in Articles 257 to 262 of the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC).


The EESC (or ESC) has adopted and launched A Programme for Europe: proposals of civil society.



On 40 pages the organised interest groups of European society have defined their views on the economic recovery and the upcoming European elections.

The EESC hopes to contribute to the development of an inclusive and mutually supportive European model, which must lead to stronger coordination between economic and political rules based on cooperation and integration strategies.



Participatory democracy

The EESC sees participatory dialogue as a complement to representative democracy. The Committee – not surprisingly – emphasises the role of representative civil society, and it proposes an institutional platform for civil dialogue as a contribution to its development.

The EESC does not propose reforms with regard to EU level representative democracy.



Ralf Grahn