EESC plenary session adopts climate change resolution and awards civil society pioneers

Climate change will be the main theme of the 457th EESC plenary session which will adopt an important resolution on sustainable development and climate change. The future European Parliament's working programme will be presented to the EESC by its President, Jerzy Buzek. The EESC will also award the winners of the third edition of the EESC prize for organized civil society.

Location: Charlemagne building (European Commission), room S 3, B - 1040 Brussels.

Date: 4 November 2009, 2.45 p.m. and 5 November 2009, 09.00 a.m.

By far the lion's share of the plenary session will be devoted to climate change. On 5 November the EESC will adopt a political resolution on renewable energies, the international financing of measures tackling climate change and the strategy for sustainable development. With this resolution the EESC calls for ambitious and enforceable commitments aimed at ensuring a sustainable future. Following the adoption, a debate linked to this topic and to the Global Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen will be addressed by the EESC President Mario Sepi, Jo Leinen, MEP, Chairman of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety of the European Parliament and Jöran Hägglund, State Secretary of the Swedish Ministry of Enterprise and Energy. The debate will also be a forum to exchange views on the movie, "The Age of Stupid", screened by the EESC the day before as a prelude. The movie takes a deliberately provocative and fictitious approach in order to raise awareness about the challenges posed by climate change.

The plenary session will also on 4 November witness the awards ceremony of the third edition of the EESC prize for organized civil society. The competition aims to identify the pioneers of civil society, who are finding new ways to bring Europeans together and help them express a dynamic shared identity in the European continent. The Libera International and Confindustria Sicilia, Italian organisations combating organised crime, tied for the first prize.

The EESC will adopt opinions on "Area of Freedom, Security and Justice" and "Fundamental rights in European immigration legislation" which are both drafted by rapporteur Mr Pariza Castaños (Employees, Spain). These are just two strands within the EU five-year Stockholm Programme which is likely to be endorsed at the European Summit in December 2009.

Additionally, the EESC will hold a debate assessing the state of play of the Lisbon Strategy in a time of the economic crisis. It will also look into the future and thrash out priorities for the post-2010 Lisbon strategy in different areas. Several opinions on the issue will be debated and voted on.

For more information please consult

https://toad.eesc.europa.eu/AgendaDocuments.aspx?pmi=c3vZ7VUXHdM%3d

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Other language versions of this press release will be soon available on our Internet website: 

http://eesc.europa.eu/activities/press/cp/index_en.asp