10/12/2018 12/12/2018
11/12/2018
I welcome the results of the latest Eurobarometer: 68% of European citizens believe their country’s EU membership to be a good thing. Citizens seem to be more in tune with the EU than some of the leaders governing national member states seem to think. I also speak for my own country, Italy, where 64% of Italians considered positively staying in the European Union—a 5% jump from last year when they were 59%. I am pleased to see that citizens, despite the growing difficulties of our changing times, increasingly support the European Union.
10/12/2018
Non-state and subnational actors have so far played a decisive role in action on climate, but they often face unsurmountable obstacles. At the COP 24 climate change conference in Katowice, Poland, on 2-14 December 2018, the president of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), Luca Jahier, stressed how urgent it was to tackle climate change and underlined the fact that Europe needed to embrace a new mechanism for sustainability that included multi-stakeholder governance.
12/12/2018 13/12/2018
539th Plenary Session - With Frans Timmermans, First Vice-President of the European Commission, 12 December at 2.30 p.m., for a presentation of the conclusions of the European Commission's high-level multi-stakeholder platform and debate on Towards a Sustainable Europe by 2030. Thursday 13 December, Award ceremony for the Civil Society Prize. (Web streaming of the session)
05/12/2018
Luca Jahier, President of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), and Antonio Tajani, President of the European Parliament (EP), signed on 5 December a joint declaration in view of the European elections that will be held in May 2019.
03/12/2018
In the European Year of Cultural Heritage, the EESC will be rewarding civil society projects that demonstrate the power of culture and common values to reunite Europe.
06/12/2018
Thirty-three schools from across Europe will come to Brussels next March to debate their views, hopes and expectations about the forthcoming European elections. They will come up with three proposals encapsulating their generation's topmost priorities for European Parliament to tackle. The European Economic and Social committee (EESC) will make sure they reach the law-makers.
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This digital publication retraces the sixty years of the Committee's commitment to involving civil society, in all its diversity, in the building of Europe, highlighting its successes, its great achievements, its added value and its vision for the future of Europe.
"Identities, European Values and Cultural Heritage in Europe"
5 organisations are awarded the 2018 EESC Civil Society Prize : Balkans Beyond Borders short film festival, Eco-Museum by the social cooperative Aria Nuova, Safe Passage, Tastes of Danube – Bread Connects, SWANS initiative
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Opinions in the spotlight
Reference:
CCMI/164-EESC-2018The proposal for a Regulation (COM(2018) 366) is based on Article 3 of the Treaty on European Union: the EU pursues the goal "to promote peace, its values and the well-being of its peoples", the EU "shall respect its rich cultural and linguistic diversity, and shall ensure that Europe's cultural heritage is safeguarded and enhanced". But there is a clear perception that the number of challenges to face is larger, in particular the competition from online platforms and search engines, the concentration of the sector around a limited number of big players, or the rise of "disinformation".
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TEN/678-EESC-2018The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) welcomes the proposal for a regulation for the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) research and training programme 2021-2025.
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TEN/680-EESC-2018The EESC notes that achieving clean energy is a high priority and to this end fusion energy is recognised as a potential long-term solution with Europe being at the forefront of developing fusion technologies which are carbon-free, sustainable and help secure our mix of energy supplies.
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TEN/681-EESC-2018The EESC endorses the Commission's proposal and highlights the suggestions for future support put forward in the opinion.
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ECO/483-EESC-2018The EESC thinks that, in addition to strengthening the coordination between supervisory authorities and streamlining procedures, operations should also be coordinated with other relevant parties to tackle money laundering and terrorism financing effectively. The EESC stresses the importance of internal and external communication on money laundering and financing of terrorism.
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SOC/574-EESC-2018The EESC points out that a non-immigration scenario in Europe would mean among other things that Member States' economies would suffer substantially; demographic challenges would be aggravated; pension systems might become unsustainable; racism and xenophobia would flourish even more than at present. Non-integration bears economic, socio-cultural and political risks and costs. Hence, investment in migrant integration is the best insurance policy against potential future costs, problems and tensions.
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SOC/585-EESC-2018A large number of Roma women and girls continue to face multiple discrimination in various areas, ranging from health to employment and education, amongst others. They also have limited opportunities to influence the policies that most concern them. The EESC emphasises the importance of their involvement, with programmes aimed at Roma women foreseeing a majority of Roma women in their planning and implementation. The EESC calls for an end to segregated education and for the abolition of health practices which infringe ethical standards.
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SOC/586-EESC-2018This opinion responds to a request from European Parliament for an exploratory opinion on gender equality in European labour markets, which had put a special emphasis on the pay situation and care obligations.
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INT/854-EESC-2018The EESC calls on the authorities at all levels to engage in close cooperation with all the stakeholders with a view to drawing up a specific action plan on the future of European retail in the 21st century.
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NAT/736-EESC-2018This opinion will look into how the access to finance for non-state climate actors can be facilitated.
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