In this edition:
• Debate on the Conference on the Future of Europe with Dubravka Šuica, Vice-President of the European Commission for Democracy and Demography
• Resolution on the Involvement of Organised Civil Society in the National Recovery and Resilience Plans – What works and what does not? – followed by a debate with Johannes Hahn, European Commissioner for Budget and Administration
• Award ceremony for the EESC Civil Solidarity Prize: Civil society against COVID-19
On the initiative of the President of the Economic and Social Council (ESC) of Bulgaria Zornitsa Roussinova, a meeting was held with Fabrizio Zarcone, World Bank Permanent Representative for Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, Europe and Central Asia.
Today, 25 January 2021, Zornitsa Roussinova - President of the Bulgarian Economic and Social Council (ESC), opened the first plenary session of the new Economic and Social Council. The council's four-year mandate begins on 25 January. Bulgaria faces economic and social challenges, but the Economic and Social Council will contribute at national and European levels to facilitate economic recovery, the creation of jobs, increasing people's incomes, said at the opening of the session ESC President Zornitsa Roussinova.
“The digitalization of the Bulgarian economy and Bulgarian companies, as well as the digital skills not only of the working people, but also of all groups in the society, will be the key topics in the future work of the Economic and Social Council (ESC)”, said Zornitsa Roussinova, the newly elected President by the National Assembly. She participated in a World Bank webinar dedicated to the recently published World Bank report “Europe 4.0: Addressing the Digital Dilemma”. “We are talking about digital transformation now, but soon we will have to talk about digital cohesion”, the ESC President stated.
The National Assembly elected Zornitsa Roussinova as President of the Economic and Social Council /ESC/. Mrs. Rusinova served as Minister and Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Policy and will succeed Prof. Lalko Dulevski, who has been leading ESC for more than 17 years since its establishment. The Economic and Social Council is the institution of organised civil society, which since 2003 expresses through its acts and organised consultations the positions of the organised civil society on strategic problems of the economic and social development of the country and the European Union.
The adopted opinion "ESC Proposals Regarding the Preparation of a Recovery and Resilience Plan of the Republic of Bulgaria" contains a number of recommendations for improving the draft of this plan. The opinion expresses the positions of organised civil society in the context of the large-scale recovery plan of the European Union in response to the crisis caused by COVID-19 - NEXT Generation EU, as well as in the context of the Mechanism for Recovery and Resilience, which can finance long-term reforms and investment in common EU priorities.
United for the future of Europe: the new president is determined to rebuild the EESC's unity and reputation and demonstrate its added value in influencing policy shaping at EU level!
