The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) elected Austria's Christa Schweng (278 votes to 2, with 8 abstentions) as its new president on the second day of the plenary session on Wednesday 28 October. The objective of the new president, who succeeds Italy's Luca Jahier, will be to “restore confidence” within the Committee, she announced.
Ms Schweng, who is the fifth woman to be elected to head the European body, presented her new slogan “United for the future of Europe” on this occasion. For, at the time of the pandemic, the Austrian stressed the need to join forces to develop an ambition “for a new Europe after the Covid crisis”.
Above all, the President said she wanted to rebuild “a more united, efficient and highly creditable EESC”. Ms Schweng, who headed the Section for Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship from 2018 to 2020, wants to “restore confidence in the institution” after the European Parliament refused to grant discharge for the 2018 implementation (see EUROPE 12587/26).
Reaffirming her strong commitment to fighting harassment in the workplace, Ms Schweng said that the EESC's code of conduct for members and rules of procedure would be strengthened at the beginning of her term of office. Jacek Krawczyk was originally due to take over the presidency of the Committee, but due to several harassment proceedings brought against him before OLAF and the Belgian authorities, he withdrew his candidacy at the end of the summer in favour of the Austrian.
Ms Schweng will present her programme in a speech at the plenary session on Thursday 29 October. “A new era is beginning”, one source hopes.
On the same day, Italy's Giulia Barbucci was elected Vice-President responsible for the budget and Ireland's Cillian Lohan was elected Vice-President responsible for communication. This election follows the renewal of 40% of the 329 members of the Committee. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)