European Pilar for Social Rights to be applied in all the Members States of EU and not just in the Euro area as it is proposed in the draft. This proposal of the President of the Bulgarian ESC prof. Lalko Dulevski was broadly supported during the Annual meeting of the Presidents and Secretaries General of the EU Member States and the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) which was held on 6th and 7th of October 2016 in Madrid. Fifteen National Economic and Social Councils took part at the Meeting as well as the EESC President Georgios Dassis.

This year’s Annual Meeting topic was “The Future of Work and Social Rights in a Changing Europe” and a large part of debate was devoted to the European Pilar of Social Rights. Prof. Dulevski put forward one more proposal to be included in the conclusions for the meeting, namely – “the children’s right of education to be guaranteed by national institutions obligations and the obligation of the parents.

The meeting conclusions will be finally formulated by EESC and will be presented to the International Labour Organisation. Currently the EESC is developing discussions on the Commission’s initiative for European Pilar of Social Rights in all member states in which the organized civil society is invited to participate. Such a dialogue meeting was held in Sofia on 3rd of October 2016 in cooperation with the Bulgarian Economic and Social Council. The participants at the Bulgarian debate stood behind the position that the European Pilar for Social Rights should be applied in all member states and it should enrich and complete the existing EU policies and practices. EESC has been asked by the European Commission to issue an opinion on this topic and it will be presented at the end of the year.