What is the EESC?
The EESC is an integral part of the EU. It was established by the Treaty of Rome in 1957 to advise EU decision-makers and ensure that civil society organizations and networks across the continent have a say in the development of Europe. The EESC is a unique forum for consultation, dialog and compromise between representatives from all sectors of organized civil society. These organizations often act as intermediaries between decision-makers and the public, offering people the opportunity to play an active role in creating change or supporting specific causes for the common good. The EESC's aim is to help make EU policy-making and legislation more democratic, effective and truly reflective of the needs of EU citizens. A large proportion of EU legislative initiatives must be submitted to the EESC for a mandatory opinion before being adopted.
The EESC is based in Brussels and consists of 329 members from all 27 EU Member States. The members come from all social and professional sectors and have a wide range of knowledge and experience. Employers' associations, industry, chambers of commerce, associations of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), trade unions, consumers, farmers, liberal professions, associations of disabled people, universities, women's rights groups, environmentalists, cooperatives, youth organizations, human rights organizations, etc. In total, the EESC brings together around 250 organizations and networks at national level, representing millions of EU citizens. The EESC consists of three groups: the Employers' Group, the Employees' Group and the Civil Society Organizations' Group.
What role do the members of the enlargement candidate members play?
"Enlargement candidate member" is an honorary title that expresses the support and interest of civil society representatives in the EU candidate countries, without being linked to the status of EESC member. The ECM concept therefore differs from EESC membership as defined in Articles 300 to 304 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFUE).
GAUs (ECM):
They participate in the entire process of drafting selected EESC opinions: from the working groups (where they can contribute to, understand, analyze and comment on proposals) to the technical group meetings and plenary sessions that conclude the process of the EESC drafting an opinion;
- They will contribute to the drafting of a number of selected EESC opinions (legislative, exploratory or own-initiative) on issues where their participation is particularly important, such as key legislative opinions on enlargement, opinions on issues of pan-European and global importance and general EESC own-initiative opinions.
- They may not be members of the Committee or the Assembly.
- They may not represent the Committee and are not authorized to speak on its behalf.
- They may not be assigned the position of chair of a working group or rapporteur/co-rapporteur.
- They may not vote on opinions or table amendments either in the departmental meetings or in the plenary assembly.
The GAUs (ECM) will also participate in a special session of the Enlargement Plenary aimed at assessing the implementation of the initiative, but also providing an opportunity to conduct a "civil society health check on human rights and democracy" in the enlargement countries and to assess the conditions of civil society in the candidate countries.
The EESC will financially cover the costs incurred by the GAUs (ECM) through their participation as external participants in the EESC's work. This means that, under certain circumstances, travel expenses will be reimbursed and a per diem will be paid for the day of the meeting to cover, for example, accommodation, meals and local transportation.
What is the selection procedure for inclusion in the group of enlargement candidate members?
The EESC will review and select the candidates. The organizations and the candidates recommended by the organization will be selected based on the basis of the criteria listed below. The process for selecting GAUs (ECMs) differs for countries with bilateral institutions resulting from EU association agreements [2] and for countries without such an institution. Existing institutions will serve as part of the ECM pool for each candidate country. Other civil society organizations will also be included in the pool as part of this process.
During the selection process, the following points will be considered to create a pool of civil society organizations for each country:
- Participation of the organization in question in the national civil and social dialog,
- Participation in national or international networks,
- The organization's commitment to the values of the EU as set out in Article 2* of the Treaty on European Union (EU),
- The need for gender balance and the presence of representatives of youth organizations.
- Preference will be given to persons who speak at least one of the official languages of the EU.
The EESC will strive for a balanced and diverse composition of the ECM, in which the three groups and different segments of civil society are represented.
Anyone interested in participating in the ECM initiative must apply by January 25, 2024. The EESC Secretariat will contact the potential ECM pool to discuss the next steps of the process. The aim is to select a pool of a maximum of 21 members for Ukraine and Turkey and 15 members for the other candidate countries.
You can submit your application here.
* Albania (ALB), Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Georgia (GEO), Moldova (MDA), Montenegro (MNE), North Macedonia (MKD), Serbia (SRB), Turkey (TUR) and Ukraine (UKR).