Ratificatie Tsjechië Verdrag van Lissabon bejubeld (en)

PRESS RELEASE No 57/2009

6 May 2009

EESC President Sepi welcomes Czech ratification of Lisbon Treaty and presents key contribution to Employment summit

EESC President Sepi welcomes the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty by the Czech Senate and celebrates the result with President Barroso and Commissioner Spidla present in Prague for the EESC Pre-Summit on Employment. Key results were achieved in Prague during this Pre-Summit on Employment for the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC).

“In order to get out of the crisis and to reinforce European integration we have to focus our attention on European social capital, which is more than human capital and productive capital, because it is our way to social peace”, urged Mr Sepi.

This message was endorsed by the positive outcome of the vote of the Czech Senate on the Lisbon Treaty, today in Prague where the European Economic and Social Committee held a Pre-summit on employment in the presence of European Commission President Barroso and Commissioner Spidla.

“The Lisbon Treaty is not only important for the improvements in decision making but also because it contains the charter of fundamental rights and social rights. After this news today, there are good prospects for the Irish referendum and therefore also to proceed in the direction of restoring confidence. The recovery from economic crisis can only be dealt with by tackling this matter of confidence”.

This was the message launched by President Barroso at the pre-summit of the EESC, organised together with the national economic and social Councils, focusing on the social consequences of the crisis and on the contribution provided by the Committee to the EU employment summit taking place tomorrow in Prague.

President Barroso also stated that he was very happy to finalise the preparation of the summit on the occasion of the Committee's meeting and underlined the importance of bringing together all the contributions to get out of this crisis in order to relaunch the European model on the international sphere.

Commissioner Spidla also welcomed with great enthusiasm the EESC's work in contributing to the summit and claimed that the innovative working method involving civil society through the workshops that took place in Madrid, Stockholm and Prague allowed for a broad consensus on several measures to put be in place.

The conference was concluded with President Sepi handing over a letter to President Barroso, containing the written recommendations and contributions of the EESC to the Employment summit. The national Economic and Social Councils also contributed to the conference and gave major input to these recommendations.