Opinions with Civil Society Organisations - Group III members as rapporteur/co-rapporteur/rapporteur-general

The European recovery strategy is very clear, focusing on the twin transition: green and digital, and addressing strategic dependencies. In this regard, the joint undertakings have a very important role to play in bringing together European expertise from different economic sectors, fostering competitiveness, improving skills and strengthening the industrial base. In its opinion, the EESC analyses the nine institutionalised European partnerships covered by the Commission proposal based on Article 187 TFEU establishing individual joint undertakings for their implementation and formulates some recommendations regarding their framework and ecosystem.

The EESC fully supports the European Commission's action plan on intellectual property as a very good and holistic approach to modernising the EU IP system. The EESC welcomes all measures to enforce the fight against IPR infringement, and the strengthening of the role of the European Anti-Fraud Office in the fight against counterfeiting.

The Commission proposes a new pharmaceutical strategy for Europe. It is a patient-centred strategy that aims to ensure the quality and safety of medicines, while boosting the sector’s global competitiveness. The EU needs to make sure that patients have access to high-quality, effective and safe medicines. It will foster patient access to innovative and affordable medicines. It will support the competitiveness and innovative capacity of the EU’s pharmaceutical industry.

The liberal professions are already very successful in using digital and artificial intelligence applications for the benefit of their clients, and are at the forefront of their technological development. They must continue to be more closely enlisted in the development and validation process in future in order to ensure applications are usable in practice and effective. The liberal professions need to update the content of training in order to ensure their own IT and digital skills and those of their employees are of the highest possible quality standard. The creation of new professions made possible by digitalisation should be encouraged, on the basis of the criteria and principles set out in the Rome Manifesto.

In its opinion, the EESC calls for physical and digital completion of the internal market to be on an equal footing and for a high level of consumer protection to be achieved. It calls for greater durability of goods, access to sustainable products, a clean, circular, more climate-friendly economy and efficient use of products, as well as combating of planned obsolescence and the right to repair goods and products.