The EESC issues between 160 and 190 opinions and information reports a year.
It also organises several annual initiatives and events with a focus on civil society and citizens’ participation such as the Civil Society Prize, the Civil Society Days, the Your Europe, Your Say youth plenary and the ECI Day.
Here you can find news and information about the EESC'swork, including its social media accounts, the EESC Info newsletter, photo galleries and videos.
The EESC brings together representatives from all areas of organised civil society, who give their independent advice on EU policies and legislation. The EESC's326 Members are organised into three groups: Employers, Workers and Various Interests.
The EESC has six sections, specialising in concrete topics of relevance to the citizens of the European Union, ranging from social to economic affairs, energy, environment, external relations or the internal market.
The EESC is expected to contribute to the mid-term evaluation of the Digital Europe Programme by assessing its implementation in selected key capacity areas through the analysis of national stakeholders' contributions and the application of the 3 main criteria: effectiveness, relevance, inclusion of civil society and its added value.
Υπό επεξεργασία (updated on 16/06/2020) - Bureau decision date: 28/05/2020
Horizon 2020 was the EU's research and innovation funding programme for 2014-2020, with a budget of nearly €80 billion. The Commission intends to evaluate this programme in order to improve the implementation of current EU research and innovation measures and the design of future measures. It also fulfils the Commission’s legal obligation to explain how it has spent public funds (Article 32 of Regulation 1291/2013).
The EESC highlights the potential of Euro-Mediterranean trade to contribute to sustainable development in the Euro-Mediterranean area and consequently encourages and supports the modernisation and extension of the bilateral Free Trade Agreements included in the eight Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreements. The EESC considers that the post COVID-19 recovery provides a momentum for such a modernisation, especially as regards capitalising on the potential benefits of a reconfiguration of global value chains in favour of the Euro-Mediterranean area and in line with the new EU trade policy. In that context, the EESC thinks that a fresh impetus is necessary to relaunch the negotiations on Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreements (DCFTAs) with Morocco and Tunisia, as well as discussions with Egypt and Jordan.
Information report: Trade relations between the EU and its Southern Mediterranean partners and their potential impact on sustainable development (information report)
The EESC welcomes the Commission's current efforts to analyse and possibly improve the performance of the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC as part of its regulatory fitness and performance (REFIT) programme. The EESC consider that the Machinery Directive is a very important and successful instrument for European industry, and its basic approach must be left unchanged. While EESC agree some changes are needed, massive changes of the Machinery Directive, in particular to the Essential Health and Safety Requirements (EHSRs) in Annex I, would have a deep negative impact on the work of developing needed harmonised standards and must be avoided.
Information report: Revision of the Machinery Directive
At the 2018 Euromed Summit, it was agreed that the next Information Report to be presented to the 2019 Summit of ESCs and Similar institutions will deal with the topic of the impact of digitalisation on SMEs in the Mediterranean area.
The integration of millions of young graduates into the job market each year constitutes a major challenge for the countries of the Southern Mediterranean. Small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) play a decisive role in the fight against youth unemployment as they are important drivers of job creation and provide 80% of employment in the region.
Information report: Digitalisation and SMEs in the Mediterranean region (information report)