OUR WORLD, OUR DIGNITY, OUR FUTURE.

OUR WORLD, OUR DIGNITY, OUR FUTURE

EESC president Malosse takes part in the launch of the European Year for Development in Riga today

On 9 January, the European Year for Development will be launched officially at a special event in Riga in conjunction with the opening of Latvia's presidency of the Council of the EU. European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker i, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini i and the Latvian prime minister Laimdota Straujuma i will be among the speakers at the opening.

The EESC president Mr Malosse has called for a reform of European development policy: "We have to seize the occasion of the European Year for Development to make our policy more effective in resolving the huge problem of poverty. First of all, we should make the policy for development a Community policy."

"It is also vital to redesign procedures, by reducing the bureaucracy involved, and to concentrate our funding efforts on populations' concrete needs".

The EESC has played an influential role in establishing 2015 as the official European Year for Development (EYD2015). In 2013, the EESC adopted a special opinion on the European Year of Development with rapporteur Andris Gobiņš, which provided firm support for the first ever European Year with a strong global and rights-based dimension. The idea was consistently promoted by the EESC, together with other civil society organisations, the most prominent of which was CONCORD - the European confederation for relief and development - until EYD2015 received official approval from the EU institutions in the spring of 2014.

"It is the first year which explicitly looks beyond the EU's geographic territory and seeks to be more than just about informing people or campaigning. It aims to increase engagement and discussion, and puts civil society at the core of the process. It presents a great chance to go beyond the traditional players by involving more stakeholders, including those from the private sector, trade unions, consumers, environmentalists, NGOs", said EESC member Andris Gobiņš. The EESC has worked to put civil society at the core of EYD2015 and supported the establishment of a broad alliance of civil society organisations, coordinated by CONCORD, to play a key role in designing a wide civil society action programme.

EESC president Malosse's statement can be found here.

Siana Glouharova - EESC Press Unit

E-mail: press@eesc.europa.eu

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