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.
Every year in February, the EESC adopts an opinion on Annual Sustainable Growth Survey, which the Commission usually presents at the end of November in the year before. The Committee works under tight deadlines, in anticipation of the referral, to finalise the opinion before the March Council discussion on the topic. To reinforce the Committee's impact throughout the entire European Semester, an own-initiative opinion with additional considerations is regularly produced by October taking into account the overall European Semester, which plays a central role in implementing the Recovery and Resilience Facility and is vital in current discussions about the review of the EU macro-economic governance framework.
EESC opinion: Additional considerations on the Annual Sustainable Growth Survey 2023
The Commission is proposing an ambitious revision of the EU pharmaceutical legislation (including a Directive and a Regulation), in order to, inter alia, create a Single Market for medicines, ensure an innovation-friendly framework for research and production and reduce the administrative burden.
The opinion will provide few but meaningful and concrete recommendations, reflecting the contributions made in the sections' and CCMI own-initiative opinions addressing the Blue Deal from their respective perspectives.
EESC opinion: Umbrella Opinion "A call for an EU Blue Deal"
The EESC calls for an action plan to properly implement the European Skills Agenda and its twelve proposed actions. Significant political efforts and systemic reforms in education and training and smart investments in human capital are needed to tackle skills-related challenges. Social partners, education providers and civil society organisations should work more together to design skills strategies that best respond to the needs of the labour market and society in general. The EESC points at the importance of improving EU and Member State initiatives regarding employee training in the workplace and creating the right incentives for employers to continue investing in the training of their workforce, with the involvement of social partners.
EESC opinion: The impact of education on wages and labour productivity
Improving Micro Small and Medium Enterprises’ (MSMEs) financial resilience is crucial to avoid unnecessary bankruptcies, loss of jobs and mitigate the impact of the past, ongoing and future crisis.
EESC opinion: Strengthening MSMEs’ financial resilience and promoting second chance for entrepreneurs
Milena ANGELOVA (Employers - GR I/Bulgaria), Rudolf KOLBE (Civil Society Organisations - GR III/Austria), Ferre WYCKMANS (Workers - GR II/Belgium)
Plenary session number
582
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Europea Economic and Social Committee's opinion on Modern Business Responsibility – Avenues for Elevating MSMEs Ability for Successful Transformation (own-initiative opinion).
EESC opinion: Modern Business Responsibility – Avenues for Elevating MSMEs Ability for Successful Transformation
EESC opinion: Individual and collective energy self-consumption as a factor in the fight for the green and energy transition, and for economic and social balance