European Economic and Social Committee

F.O.I. Director-General Edwin Calleja has assumed his new responsibilities as a member of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), one of the major institutions of the European Union.

The EESC comprises representatives from three groups: employers, trade unions and civil society. In terms of the EU Accession Treaty, Malta was granted five members in the committee that meets regularly in Brussels.

Two out of the five members represent employers, two represent trade unions and one represents civil society. Mr Calleja is one of the two officials representing all major employer organisations in Malta. In a historic meeting held last week at the European Parliament Building, the five Maltese representatives formally assumed their duties as members of the committee.

Mr Calleja was also formally appointed a member of two sections of the EESC, one that handles Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship and the other that deals with Economic and Monetary Union and Economic and Social Cohesion.

The EESC is a non-political body that gives representatives of Europe's socio-occupational interest groups, and others, a formal platform to express their points of view on EU issues. Its opinions are forwarded to the larger institutions - the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament.

It thus has a key role to play in the Union's decision-making process either by examining proposals for Directives by the European Commission or presenting its own proposals. The ESC was set up by the 1957 Rome Treaties to involve economic and social interest groups in the establishment of the common market and to provide institutional machinery for briefing the European Commission and the Council of Ministers on EU issues.

The Single European Act (1986), the Maastricht Treaty (1992), the Amsterdam Treaty (1997) and the Treaty of Nice (2000) have reinforced the EESC's role.

Consultation of the EESC by the Commission or the Council is mandatory in certain cases; in others it is optional. The EESC may, however, also adopt opinions on its own initiative.

The Single European Act (1986) and the Maastricht Treaty (1992) extended the range of issues, which must be referred to the Committee, in particular the new policies (regional and environment policy).

The Amsterdam Treaty further broadens the areas for referral to the Committee, and allows it to be consulted by the European Parliament. On average the EESC delivers 170 advisory documents and opinions a year (of which about 15 per cent are issued on its own initiative).

All opinions are forwarded to the EU's decision-making bodies and then published in the EU's Official Journal.