European Economic and Social Committee
The conference was originally planned for 12 March 2020 and postponed several times as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The organisers decided to reschedule the event and to organise it in January 2022 (the exact date will be decided in October or November 2021).
The European Migration Forum – the dialogue platform on migration, asylum and migrant integration – will meet for the sixth time on 27-28 October 2021.
Participation in the Forum meeting is by invitation only - the call for interested organisations is open.
The on-line application form is available here – link to the application form.
In order to reshape the European economy and in line with the objectives stated by the European Commission for a more sustainable, greener and digitalised economy, investments must support environmental goals and remove obstacles to corporate dividend policymaking and payments. Among many other factors, the debt-equity bias in the corporate tax systems affects both the leverage of firms and corporate governance. The EESC welcomes the recent public consultation on a new initiative to mitigate the debt-equity bias in corporate taxation launched by the European Commission and shares the Commission's view that companies should contribute to the achievement of a greener, sustainable and digitalised economy. The EESC aspires to contribute to the ongoing public debate and will hold an online public hearing ‘’The role of corporate taxes in corporate governance - addressing the debt-equity bias" on 8 October 2021.
The fourth conference of the Social Innovation for Refugee Inclusion (SI4RI) builds on previous editions in 2016, 2017 and 2019. The 2021 conference will explore in particular how the diverse landscape of partnerships, social enterprises, participatory models, and community led initiatives spearheading social innovation for inclusion have fared against the backdrop of COVID 19. It will also discuss how this ecosystem can emerge strengthened from the crisis, and how innovations can reach underserved places and highly vulnerable groups.
In the context of the own-initiative opinion on Volunteers – Citizens building the future of Europe, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) is organising a remote public hearing on Monday 20 September 2021. The aim of the hearing is to gather the points of view of social partners and other civil society organisations, experts and coordinators of projects related to volunteering, on the topic, and to hold a discussion on the impact of civil society trends for volunteering and the current state of play of volunteering at European level.
The EESC Thematic Study group on Disability Rights is organising a public hearing on 16 September 2021.
The aim of the hearing is to discuss the challenges of the transition from institutional to community-based support for persons with disabilities(de-institutionalisation) as well as the role played by families as their carers.
Your participation and input are most welcome!
Both a sustainable economic and social recovery from the COVID-19 crisis and the need to address effectively the climate change will require a massive expansion of investments. To achieve this, reshaping the EU fiscal rules is indispensable. Against this background, the Section for Economic and Monetary Union and Economic and Social Cohesion (ECO) of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) is currently working on an own-initiative opinion on Reshaping the EU Fiscal Framework for a Sustainable Recovery and a Just Transition.
Since 1984, the European Parliament has called for a Statute for a European association. EU institutions are increasingly recognising the social, economic and civic impact of European association networks and national NGOs in the current difficult context with rising social tensions and polarisation. In addition, the EU institutions are also concerned about the shrinking civic space in Europe.
To feed into the opinion, a remote public hearing will gather the institutional and civil society views on the proposal and possibly collect ideas to make it stronger.
On 6 September 2021, the EESC's Labour Market Observatory will hold a remote public hearing on collective bargaining practices in Member States with a low labour union participation rate.
The number of live 5G networks has increased significantly in Europe and outside Europe since the beginning of 2019. The result of a 2020 Deloitte study on 5G technology shows that 39% of participants believe that 5G is safe for health, while 21% believe that 5G is harmful, and 40% have doubts.
