“Stand up for democracy, speak up for Europe” was the motto of the outgoing president of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), Oliver Röpke, during his 2.5-year term at the helm of the Brussels-based EU institution.
On Thursday, the European Newsroom (enr) spoke to Röpke on the sidelines of the Committee’s 599th plenary session about his biggest achievements, the challenges he faced, and his vision for the future of the European Union.
One of those achievements was setting up the so-called Enlargement Candidate Members’ Initiative designed to involve representatives of civil society organisations from EU candidate countries in its advisory work. Röpke told the enr that the Committee is an “absolute frontrunner” of the idea to include new countries in the bloc.
Another hot issue tackled during the interview was the ongoing housing- and cost-of-living crisis. The Austrian trade unionist said they pose a “big threat for…the trust in democracy and for the trust also in the capability of Europe to act”.
The outgoing EESC president also spoke of ongoing efforts to diversify the EU’s global trade relations, the lack of social initiatives in the current European Commission, the rise of AI, automation and platform work, and more.
The interview was conducted by journalists from the enr’s member agencies EFE (Spain), TASR (Slovakia), MIA (North Macedonia), and Tanjug (Serbia). Tim Kohnen and Ian Smith from the enr team participated to ask questions on behalf of the network.
The content of the interview and related materials were made accessible to all enr agencies, allowing them to publish articles on their respective channels.
Following the interview, the enr also filmed an exclusive video statement with Röpke in the hemicycle of the European Parliament, which you can view on X, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
The enr also produced two Key Stories based on the interview:
Story 1: Outgoing EESC chief calls on EU to keep enlargement momentum
Story 2: Cost of living crisis “a big threat for the trust in democracy”, EESC President warns
More impressions from the interview. Photos: Ivan Ilic/Tanjug/European Newsroom
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