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.
Macro-regional cooperation is part of the process of strengthening democracy in the EU, and of strengthening bottom-up initiatives. Such cooperation is a positive catalyst, defending and complementing the EU's fundamental values. This is one of the conclusions from the conference on the "Role and significance of the Black Sea region and its connection with the Danube Strategy". The conference took place on 14 and 15 June in Albena, Bulgaria.
Water is a vital but an increasingly scarce resource. As the global population grows, so does the demand for water. The problem is global, but also concerns our continent: in summer 2022 Europe saw the most severe droughts in 500 years. Almost two thirds of European citizens consider water quality and/or quantity in their country to be a serious problem. Climate change will further affect the availability, quality and quantity of water. …
With this debate, the ECO section is providing ex-ante input to the European Commission, in preparation for the upcoming 2023 strategic foresight cycle that wants to shed light on the strategic decisions needed to ensure a socially and economically sustainable Europe with a stronger role in the world in the coming decades.
Towards an innovative, sustainable and competitive maritime industry in 2020
Brussels
Belgium
The European maritime technology industry is an important sector in terms of employment, directly providing more than 500 000 jobs. Shipyards and firms manufacturing marine equipment make a significant contribution to the economic development of the regions where they are located, and across the entire supply chain, which is particularly important to SMEs. Each direct job in a European shipyard means, on average, seven jobs created in the region.
The European Economic and Social Committee calls on the European institutions to consider water as a priority and to adopt an EU Blue Deal as a standalone strategic policy, on an equal footing with the EU Green Deal.
On 5 July President Röpke participated in the 2023 Euromed Summit organised in cooperation with the Union for the Mediterranean Secretariat, the Anna Lindh Foundation and Bibliotheca Alexandrina. This year's summit focused on water scarcity and desertification as well as on digital and energy transitions in the Euro-Mediterranean region.
This publication provides an overall perspective of the key recommendations contained in the opinions adopted by the European Economic and Social Committee on maritime affairs over the last four years. EESC opinions express the views of organised civil society and, according to the Treaties, are published in the Official Journal of the EU and taken into consideration by the European Institutions involved in the legislative process (European Parliament, Council of the European Union and European Commission).
The European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) “Water and sanitation are a human right! Water is a public good, not a commodity!“ was the first successful ECI, achieving over 1.6 million validated signatures from across 13 Member States. The Initiative called upon the Commission to “implement the human right to water and sanitation in European law“.