Hungary: civil society on the Lisbon Strategy

The European Economic and Social Committee is one of the European institutions which channels the voice of civil society organisations towards European-level decision-making. A current and relevant issue on the agenda of EESC ? like many other EU institutions ? is the Lisbon Strategy to ensure economic growth and creating more jobs in the European Union. A year after its mid-term review in 2005 the EESC held a major international conference entitled ?Improving national ownership of the Lisbon Strategy: Is organised civil society sufficiently involved?? to discuss the Strategy in co-operation with the Hungarian Economic and Social Council on 9-10 March, 2006 in the Hungarian Parliament in Budapest. The audience of about 120 EESC members from the 25 EU member countries and 350 civil society representatives, MEPs, MPs, government officials and researchers of Hungary listened to speeches from EESC President Anne-Marie Sigmund. She urged for greater dialogue between European institutions and European citizens. At the conference Hungarian government views were articled by Gábor Csizmár employment minister, Péter Kiss minister of the Prime Minister?s Office and Etele Baráth, minister without portfolio responsible for EU affairs. EESC President Sigmund and HESC President Sándor Demján issued a joint communication to be presented to the EU Summit at the end of March, which confirms their views that the Lisbon Strategy has to be seen as a complex social modernisation project which can be implemented with respect to existing European values under the slogan “Achieving continuity through change”. EESC will present the findings of the conference to the EU Summit at the end of March 2006. Joint communication of the conference on the internet: www.esc.eu.int/lisbon_strategy/events/09_03_06_improving/conclusions_en.pdf ” target=”_blank”