Oliver Röpke’s big tent approach in his first year as EESC president [Advocacy Lab Content]

7 months ago 29

After one year in office, the launch of a bold manifesto including the voices of youth, an emphasis on gender equality, and a fresh approach to enlargement, Oliver Röpke, President of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) is making waves.

Röpke spoke with Euractiv’s Fiona Alston to recap his first year at the EESC.

FA: You have completed your first year in office since being elected the President of the EESC, how is your term going? Has it met expectations?

OR: At the time of the election, I presented an ambitious agenda. We had 34 concrete actions in the manifesto with the aim to strengthen the position of the EESC in the frontline of EU politics.

We knew from the very beginning that this wouldn’t be an easy job because some of the proposals were quite innovative, but I was convinced that we had to make the Committee more visible and more relevant – to have an impact with our opinions we need to move forward with the institution.

We have accomplished 20 out of 34 concrete actions within one year – it’s a positive assessment but there are still things to do over the next year and a half. One of my overarching principles is to work very closely with EU candidate countries – civil society and social partners from candidate countries. We cannot wait until the enlargement happens; we have to start now with gradual integration.

FA: You mentioned strengthening the position of the EESC and bringing it into the public eye, how else are you achieving that?

OR: We try to build alliances with other institutions on political priorities. We worked closely with the EU presidencies – we really have increased our visibility, our relevance, and our impact.

In October 2023 we called for a dedicated water strategy for the European Union, an EU Blue Deal with 21 concrete demands focusing on policy, funding and knowledge. For example, a single blue transition fund, a water consumption label and a dedicated commissioner for water are among these demands.

Also, as part of my manifesto, I said we should look beyond borders strengthen our position at the international level and give European civil society a strong voice there.

We achieved a lot, our voice resonated at the International Labour Organisation (ILO), at the United Nations COP in Dubai, and we also represented the European civil society at the UN Commission on the Status of Women, for the first time, where the key priority was gender-based poverty.

FA: What more do you feel can be done to tackle gender issues?

OR: First of all, we need a shift of paradigm – it’s not a ‘nice to have’, it’s a ‘must-have’. I’m convinced that gender equality must be an integral component of the Committee’s recommendations for EU policies.

It must be a cross-cutting issue and it must be highlighted in all our opinions therefore I work together with our inhouse equality group set up to foster more gender equality in our workplace but also to make proposals for more gender equality and female leadership. We will debate these ideas at the EESC plenary session this week.

FA: Do you see much disparity between the member states on gender equality issues?

OR: We’ve seen this at the discussions on Women on Boards, for example, where many countries were reluctant to start with. I’m seeing some positive results, Poland was rather reluctant when it came to women’s rights in the past, to put it politely, but now we can see that the government is very ambitious.

I’m very optimistic that the Polish government and the equality minister will involve us in the preparation for the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

FA: You have opened the committee to include young opinions. What was the idea behind that and has it proved a success?

OR: We are the first EU institution that applies the EU Youth Test, to bring the interests and the views of the younger generation into our decision-making.

We started this last July as a pilot project for one year. We selected different opinions that are of high importance to young people and had representatives from youth organisations take part in our debates and as participants in public hearings. We had a concrete proposal on the table which has now been approved for the structural application of this EU Youth Test.

We also recently organised the first fully-fledged Civil Society Week here in the house with several initiatives, one of them was the youth parliament where we had around 150 young people from all member states and candidate countries discussing important issues ahead of the European elections.

FA: With this being an election year, how are you tackling the issue of the spread of disinformation, in particular in the run-up to the June elections?

OR: The best way to tackle this is a functioning participatory democracy, which means participation and involvement of civil society and social partners, that’s what we do here. It’s not our job to vote for a specific party, but to get into discussions and to make sure that the decisions in June will be based on facts and not disinformation.

We also go beyond borders, just last week we went to Moldova where we had exchanges with journalists, human rights activists, civil society, and the government. We met independent journalists fighting against disinformation ahead of the referendum which will take place in October, on the accession of Moldova to the European Union.

FA: What impact might the elections have on the EESC?

OR: The elections will have an impact on the European Parliament which is one of our strongest partners. I’m still confident that despite all the disinformation and hatred that we see, in the end, we will still have a new European Parliament with a strong pro-European majority. Despite all the different views we have here because we bring together workers, employers, and all civil society organisations we are united as pro-Europeans as a strong voice for Europe.

[By Fiona Alston I Edited by Brian Maguire | Euractiv’s Advocacy Lab ]