Employers' Group preparing for the Estonian presidency

As Estonia is the most advanced digital society in the world, digitisation will be one of main priorities of the Estonian presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2017. The Employers' Group, in close cooperation with Estonian employers' organisations, is keen to actively contribute to the presidency agenda. That is why on 19 and 20 April, the president of the Employers' Group, Jacek Krawczyk, visited Estonia to discuss potential joint initiatives.

In October 2017, in line with the presidency's priorities and in the framework of its agenda, the group will host a conference on the advantages of the digital society. This will be an excellent opportunity to explore best practices in digitisation adopted in Estonia and in other EU Member States. As underlined in the group's priorities, embracing digital innovation is indispensable for staying competitive.

The presidency is working on a number of interesting initiatives related to digitisation, for example on the role of digitisation in the transport sector and on the free flow of data. The Employers' Group is highly interested in these initiatives and is willing to further examine these proposals.

Apart from digitisation, the Eastern Partnership will also be an important focus of the upcoming presidency. The Eastern Partnership Summit is scheduled for November 2017 in Brussels. As the EESC has constantly called for the active involvement of civil society in the Eastern Partnership, this creates a solid basis for close cooperation between the presidency and the EESC in that area.

The presidency will also continue working on important dossiers in the area of social policy, such as the European Pillar of Social Rights and the revision of the Posting of Workers Directive – which are extremely important topics for employers.

The group president's visit included meetings with representatives of Estonia's Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication, Ministry of Social Affairs and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Krawczyk also visited the e-Estonia showroom and met with high-level representatives of Estonian national employers' organisations:  the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Estonian Employers' Confederation.