Speech by Georges Dassis – President of the European Economic and Social Committee
Inaugural plenary session, Thursday 8 October 2015
Paul-Henri Spaak Hemicycle
"Georges Dassis warmly thanked at the time of their interventions, the speakers who preceded him:
Jean-Pierre BOBICHON, with a message by Jacques DELORS;
Jacek KRAWCZYK, President of the EESC Employers' Group;
Gabriele BISCHOFF, President of the EESC Workers' Group;
Luca JAHIER, President of the EESC Various Interests' Group;
Susanna CAMUSSO, Secretary-General of the Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGIL);
Rainer HOFFMANN, President of the Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB);
Carmelo BARBAGALLO, Secretary-General of the Italian Labour Union (UIL);
Rudy De LEEUW, President of the General Federation of Labour of Belgium and President of the
European Trade-Union Confederation (video);
Irini PARI, member of the Committee, on behalf of Theodoros FESSAS, President of the Hellenic
Federation of Enterprises (SEV);
Ioannis PANAGOPOULOS, member of the Committee, President of the General Confederation of
Greek Workers (GSEE);
Christos POLYZOGOPOULOS, President of the Greek Economic and Social Committee;
Luca VISENTINI, Secretary-General of the European Trade-Union Confederation;
Conny REUTER, Secretary-General of SOLIDAR and Co-President of the Liaison Group of the
Committee;
Philippe DE BUCK, member of the Committee, former-Director General of Business Europe;
Michael SMYTH, Vice-President of the Committee, in charge of budget matters;
Gonçalo LOBO XAVIER, Vice-President of the Committee, in charge of communication matters "
No need to panic. I am not going to talk for long.
First of all, what I have not yet said about my excellent colleagues, Michael Smyth and Gonçalo Lobo
Xavier, is that they are lucky. Our colleagues from the previous term of office, Hans Joachim Wilms,
who was responsible for the budget, and Jane Morrice for communications, did outstanding work and
have left an excellent legacy. I would like to thank Jane and Hajo once again. I am not sure whether
they are in the room, but I am sure that this will be passed on.
And next I would like to thank ... If I thank everybody by name, there is a danger that I will forget
someone. Nevertheless, as I can see my friend and colleague, Claudio Stanzani, who is here today in
difficult conditions, I would like to thank him. Thank you, Claudio, for being here today
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EN
Peter Scherrer is another friend whom I have known for a long time and who has just been elected
deputy secretary-general of the European Trade Union Confederation. Thank you, Peter, for spending
your morning with us.
And many thanks to Sylvia (Gauci) - benvenuta! - a former member of the Committee, secretarygeneral of the Maltese ESC, and thanks also to John (Bencini), who also comes from the Maltese
ESC.
As for Marianne (Nati-Stoffel), I could say many things about her. But I think you know already.
Thank you, Marianne, secretary-general of the Luxembourg ESC, for being here.
Paul (Windey), I am sure you will say that, as a Belgian and a social partner, it goes without saying
that you would be here, but thank you anyway for spending your time with us.
I have already thanked Susanna (Camusso) this morning for being here.
Roger (Briesch) - ever faithful! Thank you, Roger. At any rate, we will see you regularly, as you are
president of the association of former members of the Committee, so there is no danger of losing
touch.
Special thanks to the secretary-general of the Committee of the Regions, who is listening to us today.
I hope that the cooperation between our two committees will be stepped up, and I would ask you to
pass on this message to the president of the Committee of the Regions.
I have already thanked Carmelo (Barbagallo). Nikos, many thanks for being here. Nikos Tsemberlidis
is president of the Consumers' Association of Greece, which is represented here by Evangelia
Kekeleki.
I have already thanked my colleagues, the group presidents, but I am happy to see other faces in the
room today: Kostas Poupakis, André Mordant, Xavier Verboven, Alejandro.
Alejandro Cercas, you do me great honour! A Spanish MEP who has always been there for the
Committee and has given us his invaluable support whenever we needed it. Muchas gracias,
Alejandro, for being here today.
I am sure I have forgotten someone. Luis-Mi! Who could forget Luis Miguel Pariza? We still talk
about the work you did here at the Committee on immigration, which is a highly topical issue today.
I know I have forgotten someone ... ah yes, there is also Zissis Smernos, a friend and colleague from
the Greek trade unions, who has come specially from Thessaloniki. Thank you, Zissis.
I do not dare look my daughters in the eye - they will give me stage fright!
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But I would particularly like to thank all my friends from Group II. They did me a great honour when
they proposed me, unanimously, as president of the Committee, and by mobilising when my name
was taken off the list of Greek members submitted to the Council. I will never forget that ...
I would also like to thank Susanna Florio and the members of the Group II secretariat most warmly:
we have worked together for a long time, 7 1/2 years, during my time as Group president and, as Paco
Soriano has said, the work got done.
I would like to thank Nikos Alexopoulos, deputy secretary-general, who has done me the honour of
agreeing to act as director of the president's private office.
My friend and colleague Denis Liégeois - we have been friends for a long time - who has always been
active in Group II, when anything needed to be done quickly, with Nikos, particularly in connection
with the events mentioned this morning.
And I would like to thank the secretary-general, Luis Planas, and all his colleagues most warmly for
their work over the last few weeks in particular, because the plenary session has taken place in
difficult circumstances - the list of members was received from the Council only a short time ago.
Thank you, Luis, and thank you, Maria, Domenico and all the others.
And finally, I should like to express my gratitude to all of you, members of the European Economic
and Social Committee, for the confidence you have shown in me, not only in difficult moments, but in
the vote yesterday.
There were six votes against me. Just as well, otherwise I would have been accused of being a
Stalinist. Well, for me it is a great honour, and although I had intended to do it anyway, it obliges me
to continue to work in the same spirit of consensus, as I have tried to do as president of Group II.
Jacek and Luca can testify to this, as can Philippe and Irini.
I am not going to read you a president's programme today. But I will say that I enjoyed listening to
you today, and you said many things which are in this paper. I call it a "paper", because it is not a
president's programme, but rather a few ideas, a few guidelines to follow during the term of office
which begins today.
I am not going to read it to you but I would like to share a few thoughts with you. This is perhaps a
first for me, but, out of respect for you, I more or less wrote a speech yesterday evening, so as not to
go on too long and so as to be able to say a few words about our Committee. Because, as well as
Committee members present today, there are also guests.
As it says in my "paper", our Committee is the expression of a genuine European value. It was set up
by the Treaties, based on a model that already existed in countries like France and Italy.
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The economic interest groups of civil society made a major contribution to reconstruction in the years
following the Second World War. Today there are people who tell me that what I say is all very well,
but that today it is not easy to be a European - in fact it is difficult. My reply is that, in those days, it
was much more difficult for the people of Germany and France, and their politicians, to make peace
and to propose something other than conflict resolution by force of arms. Today, in civil society we
have a similar role to play in building the Europe of tomorrow.
The very existence of the Committee is a guarantee of democracy, a guarantee that the Union, and
thus the decision-making European institutions, should make more use of in their dealings with the
public. In a democratic system it is a good thing to finance a consultative body like ours, which can,
among other things, criticise the decision-makers. We make proposals but, at times - and this is quite
normal - we make criticisms.
An authority which is not afraid to give trade unions, employers' organisations and associations of
citizens a voice through an official European Union body is an authority which can genuinely pride
itself on being democratic. An authority which is not afraid of contradiction or criticism. An authority
which does not seek to silence those who criticise it.
I would like to clarify things, on the subject of financing, because there are a lot of rumours doing the
rounds. When you instructed me to draw up a proposal for the Members' Statute, I defended our
proposal with the Council, as it had been adopted unanimously by the Committee. On that occasion a
member of the permanent delegation of one of the Member States - I will not say which one so as not
to cause problems - said to me in a rather ironic tone: "Mr Dassis, you members of the Economic and
Social Committee do pretty well for yourselves, I see". I replied to him: "I imagine that your
government pays you badly. If you would like to be better paid, I suggest you pass a competition or
find a way of becoming an official of the European and Economic and Social Committee, and then
you will indeed be doing well. As for the members, they receive reimbursement for their travel and
subsistence expenses, which represents an extremely small percentage of the Committee's budget, and
the Committee's budget is in turn an extremely small percentage of the EU budget - at a rough
estimate about 0.013%. So let's be clear about it: the participation of the members of the Committee in
the democratic process costs very little.
Another characteristic of the Committee is that it is designed to express the views of the whole of
organised civil society. Employers, workers and citizens' associations are consulted together and have
to express their views together. This is another original EU feature.
There have been other large-scale unions - remaining in our part of the world, one might mention the
European Free Trade Association - but they have dwindled away. These were trade associations, the
main purpose of which was to trade in goods while reducing customs duties.
If our Union exists today and has continued over time, it is because it has an original feature, which
can be traced back to the fact that it is governed by a system which is, I think, unique in the history of
humanity. In this system, our Committee offers real added value, because it is able to draw up truly
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consensual opinions. In order to arrive at these opinions, we, the three Groups, are obliged to remain
at the table, to conduct dialogue and to draw up a position before addressing the decision-makers, the
European authorities, represented by the Council and the Parliament, or the Commission, when it is
preparing draft legislation.
My distant ancestors, the Ancient Greeks, Aristotle to be precise, wrote that a human being was a
"zoon politikon", a political animal, in other words a social being. Living in a city-state involved
interaction with others, solidarity, association, union. What is more, for the Ancient Greeks,
individuals not involved in politics in the broader sense of the term, in other words those not involved
in the life of the city-state, were useless citizens. The Europe of tomorrow should be like a city which
has struck the right balance between the individual and the collective, avoiding both social tyranny
directed at the individual but also individual tyranny directed at society.
Every individual must be free, respected, with full rights, but at the same time the right to organise
freely in the society in which you live, and to negotiate collectively, must be encouraged and given
the weight it deserves.
According to the Treaty, the Committee "shall consist of representatives of organisations". It is thus
not a committee of experts. I would like to clarify that point, because we are often compared to
experts or even lobbyists. Nothing could be further from the truth. Again, according to the Treaty, the
Committee's role is to communicate the views of employers, the employed, trade unions and other
parties representative of civil society, notably in socio-economic, civic, professional and cultural
areas. Luca Jahier and Conny Reuter reminded us of that this morning.
The European Economic and Social Committee also offers a solution to the question of lobbying.
Each of us represents, with the greatest transparency, the organisation from which he or she comes.
We do not hide the fact that we are working for businesses - Jacek talked about that this morning, as
well as Philippe, Irini and others; and we, the representatives of employees, never hide the interests
that we represent. Luca and the members of Group III have never hidden their membership of their
associations, their work on behalf of the interests they represent.
We are proud to carry the standards of our associations and we act with transparency. We do not
haunt the corridors of power in the hope of influencing some official or other in the way he drafts
some piece of Union legislation. We publish our opinions in the Official Journal; our debates are
public and our documents can be consulted by all members of the public. And so, dear members of
the Committee, please never allow people to compare us to lobbyists: we are representatives of
organised civil society.
I could go on for quite a long time, but then I might be accused of "talking my own book" and
speaking only about the Committee. And so I will say no more about the role of the Committee in the
Union and go on to say a few words about Europe.
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As you know, there were some good things in the Treaty of Rome, but more recently Article 2 of the
Treaty of Lisbon states that, and I quote, "the Union's aim is to promote peace, its values and the wellbeing of its peoples". Since the establishment of the first European Community, the European Coal
and Steel Community, in 1952, we have gone from six to 28 Member States and, who knows, in the
future we may be 29 or 30 and we may succeed in turning a geographical Europe into a political,
social and economic Europe.
The Community of six was genuinely attractive, so attractive that more states wanted to join, not
fewer. For various reasons. I will not quote them all, but I will quote some, which were very simple:
the area of the European Communities was an area of peace, freedom, democracy, dignity and wellbeing. An area which, little by little, put in place measures to guarantee a degree of economic and
social cohesion. The Union was so successful at that time that it came to be regarded almost as "for
ever", as Jacek correctly pointed out this morning. Unfortunately, as you know very well, nothing is
for ever. Nothing.
The love you have for your partner, your wife, or your husband as the case may be, is not necessarily
for ever. As you know well, love has to be maintained. It has to be nourished. Similarly, the Union
has to be maintained if it is to last. But for the last few years, our Union has been sick: it is
experiencing a deep and serious crisis. The economic and financial difficulties have highlighted the
weaknesses in its governance, the inadequacy of its integration, the tangible risk of serious
dislocations and the loss of that which constituted the strength of the European project: the support of
its peoples and the enthusiasm of a large proportion of the public.
I, together with many others - my friend and colleague, Jean Lapeyre, who is here, for example - can
remember a time when the people of Europe were virtually unanimous in their support for European
integration, the time of the Europe of nine, ten or twelve - I did not know the Europe of six. Isn't that
right, Jean?
Our Union today is not so united, and as the president of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker,
rightly said, it has meaning only if it focuses on people.
It is through entrepreneurship, work but also solidarity that the European Union is being built. There
has been a terrible lack of solidarity in certain areas in Europe recently, particularly with regard to the
admission of refugees. It has even been completely forgotten, although it is one of the pillars of our
Union. Is not through becoming inward-looking that we will achieve the competitiveness that we are
always hearing about. It is not by becoming inward-looking that we will reduce unemployment and
poverty, that we will stop the nationalists, the extremists, the racists from winning over vulnerable
people with false promises and "golden dawns", to use a phrase which is sadly much used in my
country. These forces want only one thing, for the Union to be broken up, dismantled. We can,
however, stop those who preach hatred in their tracks by sending a clear signal to show that the Union
is there for the people, by showing, with courage and ingenuity, that there is strength in unity.
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The strength, for example, to resist the speculators, to finance our regions' businesses and
infrastructure, to secure a better hearing on the world stage. The strength to reindustrialise Europe, to
finance research and development, to offer a better future to young people, to guarantee decent living
conditions for all. We do not have the right to leave our young people in despair. By working
together, and I stress together, in a spirit of consensus, we, the representatives of civil society, can
make a major contribution to ensuring that our Union remains an area of peace, freedom and
democracy and that our Union becomes more united, with more solidarity, more European. Together
we can win this "battle", as I am tempted to call it.
Thank you for listening, and thank you to all my colleagues for the confidence they have placed in
me. This confidence requires me to work, together with all the members of the Committee, for a
Europe which will continue to be a beacon of hope for the people, a united Europe of solidarity in
which the people can have confidence in their future and the future of their children. Thank you.
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