{"id":399392,"date":"2024-10-22T16:11:16","date_gmt":"2024-10-22T14:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/10\/22\/cese-allargamento-ue-societa-civile\/"},"modified":"2024-10-25T15:20:38","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T13:20:38","slug":"enlargement-eesc-integration-to-be-gradual-engaging-civil-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/10\/22\/enlargement-eesc-integration-to-be-gradual-engaging-civil-society\/","title":{"rendered":"Enlargement, EESC: “Integration to be gradual, engaging civil society”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels\u00a0– Enlargement is a “strategic investment<\/strong>” for the Union, but the “precondition<\/strong>” for it to work is to engage<\/strong>\u00a0civil society<\/strong>. This was\u00a0said by Oliver R\u00f6pke<\/strong>, chairman of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)<\/strong>, the EU’s advisory body in which the interests of workers’ organizations, employers’ organizations, the third sector<\/strong> and, in general, the demands of civil society<\/strong> organizations are represented. The Austrian, who has led the Committee since last year, insists that the integration<\/strong> of the candidate countries be “gradual<\/strong>,” allowing them to participate even before their formal entry into community life.<\/p>\n

Civil society at the centre<\/h3>\n

At a press briefing on Tuesday (Oct. 22), R\u00f6pke explained\u00a0his institution’s approach to\u00a0enlargement<\/strong>, an issue destined to assume\u00a0central<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0importance<\/strong> in the coming years, starting with the institutional cycle that began\u00a0with last June’s European elections. “We see enlargement as a strategic investment” and a “success story<\/strong>,” he told reporters, specifying that “the precondition” for achieving it properly is to “have an engagement\u00a0of civil society and social partners<\/strong>” that is as structured as possible.<\/p>\n

“The real problems,” the EESC\u00a0president stressed, are to be found in the democratic “structures” in the candidate countries<\/strong>: for example, those “to protect the rule of law<\/strong>, to protect civic space<\/strong>, and to have a robust dialogue” between the social partners<\/strong> leading, among other things, to satisfactory collective bargaining. That is, we should “begin to strengthen these structures in the candidate countries as early as now,” even if their entry into the Union is later.<\/p>\n

The gradual integration of candidate countries<\/h3>\n

The solution, for R\u00f6pke, is what he termed “gradual integration<\/strong>“: allowing countries granted candidate status by Brussels to participate<\/strong>, as observers, in the workings of the Union<\/strong>, as is already the case, for example, with informal Council meetings. The EESC’s contribution to this movement of progressive inclusion took shape<\/a> in the pilot project dubbed Enlargement Candidate Members<\/i> (ECM)<\/strong>, through which the Committee has engaged 146 civil society representatives from the candidate countries<\/strong> in its activities to help draft a dozen opinions concerning cohesion policy, the single market, sustainability, agrifood, and the rule of law, among other things. It is an initiative that is expected to end at the end of the year but has been much appreciated by those involved, as underlined<\/a> by Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama,<\/strong> according to whom this model should also be extended to the EU Parliament<\/strong>, and which R\u00f6pke has pledged to transform from extemporaneous to permanent.<\/p>\n

This is the same path indicated by the chairwoman of the EU executive, Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong>, in the letters of assignment<\/strong> sent to the commissioners-designate: there “It is mentioned explicitly that each commissioner should promote the step-by-step integration of the candidate countries,” R\u00f6pke pointed out, which precisely coincides with one of the EESC’s main demands: “To see what each institution can do to integrate the candidate states step by step already before full EU membership.”<\/p>\n

Progress toward membership<\/h3>\n

\n

Different chancelleries among the nine in question (Albania<\/strong>, Bosnia-Herzegovina<\/strong>, Georgia<\/strong>, Northern Macedonia<\/strong>, Moldova<\/strong>, Montenegro<\/strong>, Serbia<\/strong>, Turkey,<\/strong> and Ukraine<\/strong>) would like to hit the goal of accession<\/strong> by the end of the decade, but it remains to\u00a0be seen how their path will progress. For now, R\u00f6pke recorded “not only support from the social partners<\/strong> and civil society but also a great willingness<\/strong> on the part of at least some governments<\/strong> to commit” to “improve their structures” in order to “meet the criteria<\/strong>” for joining the European club. According to the EESC\u00a0president, some of the best progress has been seen in Albania<\/strong> and Northern Macedonia<\/strong> (although Tirana and Skopje’s paths to Brussels have been recently unbundled<\/a>). At the same time, there are close contacts with the\u00a0Serbian government and civil society<\/strong> and Georgian civil society<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

With regard to\u00a0<\/span>Moldova<\/strong>, a big problem\u2014especially in some regions, such as\u00a0<\/span>Gagauzia\u2014<\/strong>is the\u00a0<\/span>pervasiveness of Russian disinformation<\/strong>, which almost succeeded in\u00a0<\/span>letting the “no” vote win<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0<\/span>popular referendum<\/strong>\u00a0held last Sunday that questioned citizens on whether to\u00a0<\/span>include the goal of EU membership in the national constitution<\/strong>.<\/span>\u00a0In the end, the “yes” side prevailed, which, according to the head of the Committee, is a “remarkable achievement” given the predictions. However, there is “still a lot to be done” in the Balkan country to consolidate the democratic structures referred to.<\/p>\n

This morning’s meeting served, among other things, as an opportunity for R\u00f6pke to present to the press the High-Level Forum on Enlargement<\/strong> that will be held<\/a> next October 24 in Brussels under the sponsorship of the EESC (which will be in\u00a0plenary session<\/a> on October 23\u201324) and the Commission, where social issues that will be at the heart of the next season of expansion of the European club will be discussed with a range of politicians (from both candidate countries and member states), academics and civil society representatives. In turn, this event will anticipate the publication<\/a>, by the EU executive, of the annual enlargement report<\/strong> (also known as the “Enlargement package”), which this year will fall on October 31.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Albania to Ukraine, it is crucial for EU candidate countries to strengthen their democratic structures before they officially join the 12-star club. Starting with the interaction of the social partners with their counterparts in the member states<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":399360,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[29452,25836,26240,26242],"class_list":["post-399392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-societa-civile-en","tag-eu-enlargement-en","tag-european-economic-and-social-committee-en","tag-oliver-ropke-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399392"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":399434,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399392\/revisions\/399434"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}