New delegates on industrial change join the EESC
Yesterday 51 new and renewed delegates attended the first meeting of the EESC Consultative Committee on Industrial Change (CCMI) under the new EESC mandate. CCMI delegates represent the different economic and social sectors and civil society organisations who are affected by or involved in bringing about industrial change. They make up one half of the members of the CCMI and will work alongside the same number of EESC members who sit on the CCMI. They will remain in office until 31 December 2020.
Delegate Jacques Glorieux, representing the Various Interests category, was elected CCMI co-chairman and will co-lead the commission with its president, Lucie Studničná, an EESC member, for the next 2 and a half years. EESC members Gundars Strautmanis (Employers group-LV) and Carlos Trias Pinto (Various Interests group-ES) and CCMI delegates Patrizio Pesci (Employers Group-IT) and Enrico Gibellieri (Workers' Group-IT) make up the new bureau. The welcome ceremony was attended by Guenther Oettinger, European Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Society.
The CCMI is the heir to the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). It was set up when the ECSC treaty expired in 2002 to retain the valuable expertise it had built up over its 50 years' activity, to continue structured dialogue in the original areas of coal and steel but also to gradually expand the ECSC's original remit to cover all aspects of industrial change and its repercussions on employment, social and structural policy measures, aid and competition policy, research and technological development, sustainable development, trade policies and other areas.
CCMI delegates are appointed by the EESC from associations representing civil society at European level. They are divided into three different categories (Employers, Workers, Various interests), mirroring the EESC's own structure. Similar to EESC sections, the CCMI draws up opinions and information reports on request from EU decision-making bodies but also on its own initiative, and can be called upon to complement other sections' opinions by looking into the industrial change implications of specific issues (opinion supplements).
CCMI has been the author of many landmark opinions and studies in recent years. Its pioneering work on planned obsolescence is part of a wider, ongoing project which will see the publication of a ground-breaking study next March. In 2015 it tackled the complex issue of fighting corruption in the EU and looked into the challenges of freeing Europe from asbestos, with its huge economic and public health implications. In 2014 it examined the impact of business services in industry and the prospective socio-economic consequences of the 4th industrial revolution and the internet. It will continue its work on Industry 4.0 in order to encourage European industry to take full advantage of the strategic opportunities offered by the internet.