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.
Lifelong learning will ensure jobs and decent living standards. However, in the absence of a standardised system across the EU, not all workers have opportunities to reskill and upskill during their careers, an EESC study finds
Trillions of euros are needed for Europe's economic recovery. EU proposals for accessible investment data and long-term funding must be more flexible and promote a transparent level playing field, to include more investors and businesses in capital markets.
Having SME policy as a horizontal priority is an indispensable way to address numerous, cross-cutting challenges that they are currently facing. Current trends cause bigger challenges for SMEs than for bigger companies. Therefore, it is high time for policy makers to act upon it. This was discussed at the conference "Placing European SMEs at a horizontal priority in post-2020 policy making process". The conference took place on 24 October 2019 in Chania, Greece and was organised by the Employers' Group, Chania's Traders Association and the Hellenic Confederation of Commerce and Entrepreneurship.
"An open economy and open society are key enablers of European prosperity, wellbeing and way of life" states the Helsinki Declaration on Open Europe. The declaration was signed by the EESC Employers' Group, the Confederation of Finnish Industries EK and Finland Chamber of Commerce during the conference "An open Europe – How does it benefit us all?" on 9 October in Helsinki, Finland.
At its plenary session in July, the European Economic and Social Committee presented proposals for the economic agenda of the upcoming legislative period (2019-2024) and recommended that they should form the basis of a new European economic strategy. The Committee's proposals seek to develop more resilient and sustainable EU economic policies within an improved governance framework for the Economic and Monetary Union.
Βάσει της νέας μελέτης που ανατέθηκε από την Ευρωπαϊκή Οικονομική και Κοινωνική Επιτροπή, οι διασυνοριακές υπηρεσίες συμβάλλουν στη δημιουργία νέων θέσεων εργασίας και την τόνωση της οικονομικής ανάπτυξης, ενώ παράλληλα επιφέρουν θετικά αποτελέσματα για όλες τις χώρες της ΕΕ και για τα διάφορα είδη απασχόλησης, τόσο υψηλής έντασης εργασίας όσο και γνώσεων. Στο εν λόγω έγγραφο αποδεικνύεται ότι η αποφυγή αυστηρής ρύθμισης της εσωτερικής αγοράς των διασυνοριακών υπηρεσιών είναι επωφελής για την οικονομία της ΕΕ. Η μείωση του μεριδίου των διασυνοριακών υπηρεσιών κατά 1% θα μπορούσε να επιφέρει κόστος ύψους περίπου 8 δισεκατομμυρίων ευρώ στην οικονομία της ΕΕ.
On 6 May 2019 the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) organised in its headquarters at Place du Congrès in Brussels a day of debates which focused on analysing the reform process of the Economic and Monetary Union, the various positions of the Member States' governments and some social actors, as well as the possible way forward from a situation that was qualified as a "blockage of the main reforms". In the six round tables that structured the debate, a total of 26 people participated, including keynote speakers, speakers and moderators. All of them were academics or officials of the European institutions.
A fair, competitive and sustainable business environment that encourages enterprises to grow innovate, invest and trade – this is what representatives of the European employers ask from the next European Commission and Member States. The participants of the European Entrepreneurship Forum taking place in Bucharest agreed that it is time for a political recognition of SMEs – shifting from "think small first" approach to "act small first" principle.