Reform the EU starting with the European Economic and Social Committee

Dear Staffan,

I’ve already sent my congratulations for your recent appointment as President of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC). The video you made for the occasion is brilliant. You started as a peasant in a rural corner of Sweden climbing the Brussels hierarchy up to the top.

The message is clear. You are not one of the spoilt kids bred to become a polite bureaucrat without a spine. You are a real person who has come to Brussels to make a difference for citizens. I hope you will be faithful to your mission.

I’ve known you since the beginning of my dealings with Brussels. You have always been open and supportive when I was really at the first step. I’m grateful and convinced you are the man!

It’s not an easy task leading the EESC. We can say that the institution has a great reputation. We have not noticed any added value coming from Rue Belliard for the last few years; except for well organised events about any sort of topic with a generous quantity of food and a great buzz.

The reform of the EESC is required. The Lisbon Treaty bestowed more power to the institution you head but its mandate is still unclear. Moreover, the legitimacy of its members is even more dubious. You have representatives of for-profit enterprises, trade unions, and the famous group III which gathers any other groups i.e. some sort of civil society. They are not elected but appointed and every country has a different procedure to select the candidates.

I was shocked when, last week, I received information about the launch of a Forum of Civil Society in the Mediterranean by the EESC. Who had this funny idea? It becomes even more worrying when you look at the speakers’ list. Nobody is actually from a civil society organisation, and I doubt another institutional forum is what civil society  in the region actually needs right now.

In a time of economic crisis there is no room for  more bureaucracy and waste. Why should the taxpayers spend millions for the EESC when they are sure about neither its added value nor delivery?

It’s time for calling for a radical change of EESC to make it good value for money. In my view the future of the institution is to become the second chamber of the Parliament. It could be a sort of the House of Lords or Senators of Europe. Its members, elected or not, would represent the transactional interests that still struggle finding a legitimacy place within the EU.

Andrew Duff MEP together with a network of colleagues launched the Spinelli Group to promote a post-national democracy in Europe. I hope you join them. I will do it.