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.
Extraordinary meeting of the Diversity Europe Group
Brussels
Belgium
The hybrid conference will see the launch of the EESC study "The response of civil society organisations to the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent restrictive measures adopted in Europe", as well as topical debates with high-level speakers and civil society representatives. External participants are kindly invited to follow the meeting from remote.
Interactio and Room JDE 62, EESC building, Rue Belliard 99
Brussels
Belgium
The EESC Thematic Study group on Disability Rights is organising a public hearing on 30 March 2021.
The objective of this hearing is to give the floor to one of the groups more hit by the COVID-19 pandemic: persons with disabilities (PWD). In particular, we will look into the situation concerning the prioritization of PWD, or lack of, in the vaccination rollouts within the EU.
Interactio and Room JDE 62, EESC building, Rue Belliard 99
Brussels
Belgium
In order to prepare its opinion on the recent health package proposed by the European Commission, the EESC is organising a public hearing on "Building a European Health Union" on 29 March 2021.
The aim of the event is to gather input from other EU Institutions, civil society and health professionals.
Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) played a central role in bringing the consensual views of organised civil society in the EU to the attention of policy-makers and contributing to the rapidly evolving economic policy response at European level.
In this regard, we believe that now is the time for the EU institutions to make decisive steps in approving swiftly the new Facility and putting in place the necessary implementation mechanisms at European and national level, so that the hardest hit Member States, citizens and businesses can benefit from the relevant EU funding when they need it most.
Against this background, and on the occasion of the first meeting of the EESC's Section for Economic and Monetary Union and Economic and Social Cohesion (ECO) in our new term-of-office (2020-2025), we are organising a thematic debate on this issue between European policy-makers and civil society representatives.
The debate will take place on Thursday, 19 November 2020 from 14.30 to 16.40 as an online event, webstreamed live on the EESC website.
Ministry of Education and Culture - Meritullinkatu 1
Helsinki
Finland
The aim of the conference was to discuss the opportunities and challenges provided by digitalisation, in particular cutting-edge digital tools, AI and robotics as well as the prerequisites to make this happen. It also addressed expectations for future steps of policy making on the European Level.
How can the costs of investing in occupational health and safety be balanced with the benefits that such measures generate?
What is the view of the EU, other international organisations and the social partners on this issue?
The EESC will hold a public hearing on "The costs and benefits of investments in occupational safety and health (OSH)", which will take place on 17 June 2019. The answers to these questions will feed into an exploratory opinion requested by the forthcoming Finnish Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
The objective of this Hearing was to present the results already achieved in the field of Digital Health Literacy, but also to debate with the different stakeholders the role of the different sectors in this area and to discuss next steps to fully unleash the potential of this topic. The event brought together players from the European institutions, the pharmaceutical sector, healthcare professionals, patient organisations, insurance organisations, experts and academics, as well as EESC members to discuss this topical issue.
In September 2016, the EESC adopted an own-initiative opinion on "The rights of live-in care workers". It was a first policy document at the European level dealing with the sector of live-in care work in Europe. As follow-up to this initiative, the EESC will carry out 5 country visits to countries of origin and destination of live-in care workers (United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Italy and Poland) to deepen the research on labour and work conditions of these persons and the quality of care delivery. The findings will be presented in a report to be released by the EESC later in 2018.
The conference discussed how Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) can help to boost innovation in biomedicine and health with a special focus on Information and Communication Technologies. It was asked how social values and needs can be “integrated from scratch” and which drivers and obstacles RRI encounters when implemented in companies.
On 20 February 2024 in Brussels, the EESC organised a conference on the Housing Crisis in Europe. This publication sets out the participants' assessment of the current state of affairs and their recommendations on how to tackle the current housing crisis.