Addressing the EESC Members at their plenary session today, Margrethe Vestager, EU Commissioner for Competition, argued a strong consumer, business and social justice case for EU competition policy. Citing key recent examples on energy, transport, state subsidies and taxation, the Commissioner underlines that competition drives companies to cut prices and improve products, and brings in the investment to the economy and creates jobs.
The overarching goal of the EU Aviation Strategy should be to create a climate which encourages European investors to invest in the aviation sector, according to the EESC ...
The EESC warns against granting China market economy status (MES) and calls on the European institutions to promote fair international competition and actively defend European jobs and European values with efficient trade defence instruments (TDIs). In its opinion, the EESC points to the disastrous impact a possible ...
Europe's steel industry is the basis for many industrial sectors and the lifeline for economic and social welfare in many regions in Europe. In addition to the economic crisis hitting the steel industry hard, the flood of unfairly traded steel imports has driven down steel prices and decimated the European steel industry. "Enough is enough. We have to save our steel. We have to show our ...
After the COP21 in Paris came up with a number of financial commitments by all sorts of national and international donors, EU and African socio-economic stakeholders gathering in Nairobi called for better information on and access to climate-mitigation funding. Members of ...
On 1 July the EESC organised the First European Day of social economy enterprises (SSEs) under the title From words to action! This participatory event brought together some 120 social economy players and the EESC's institutional partners to take stock of the current situation, generate synergies and explore what measures still need to be taken to build an adequate ecosystem for social economy enterprises and fully unleash the potential of the sector.
Refugees have been the focus of news and debate in Europe over the last year, with the number of asylum applicants reaching 1.3 million in 2015. Their ever increasing flows, the heated debates and the powerful tensions that this influx has generated in Europe make it more important than ever to mark World Refugee Day, to commemorate the many refugees who have lost their lives while seeking safety and to reflect on how best to respond to a trend which, as studies show, is likely to continue.
The 1st and inaugural meeting of the EU-Georgia Civil Society Platform (CSP) was held on 16th June 2016 in Tbilisi and was co-chaired by Andrzej Adamczyk, member of the EESC, and Kakha Gogolashvili, chairman of the Georgian National Platform at the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum. The participants in the first CSP meeting adopted a joint declaration, assessing the state of play of the EU-Georgia Association Agreement's implementation and acknowledging the considerable progress achieved by Georgia since the beginning of the Association process. Nevertheless, they called ...
This Friday 10 June, the President of the European Economic and Social Committee, Georges Dassis, will go to the Élysée Palace, where he will be received by the French President. Along with nine other signatories, he will promote the Appeal of 9 May for a European renaissance, and is counting on France to lead efforts to relaunch the European project. With six initiatives to counteract not just the "economic and political, but also moral and cultural marginalisation of Europe" – ranging from European civic education and an "Erasmus secondary school" to the EU's internal security – the appeal urges the "EU institutions and all Member States" to start working on fulfilling the promises set out in this roadmap ...
Representatives from European civil society organisations and networks, members of the EESC and European institutions gathered in Brussels on 31 May and 1 June for the annual Civil Society Days, hosted by the EESC. The main focus of the discussions over the 2-day event was migration and the challenges and changes that this presents to our European society to make the most of it.
